Another Round
by DarkAngl2025
Summary: Chapter 11 added! This is our retelling of the events of Rory's return, changes in relationships and the town that we've all grown to love with the characters we love as well. This is a JavaJunkie, and a Lit.
1. Drinks with the boys

Title: Another Round  
Chapter 1  
Authors: This is a combined effort of two Fanfiction writers, myself, DarkAngl2025 and swimchic2.  
A/N: This is the first time either of us has written in a very long time, school, work, and life are mainly to blame for this. We appreciate any comments, questions, or suggestions you may have. And just so you know we truly plan to update this at least once a week (especially on the weekends) perhaps more frequently if we have the time and energy. Thanks to all of you who are reading this.  
Pairings: Rory/Logan, Rory/Jess  
Spoilers: Through the November 9th episode.

The Story begins outside the bar as Jess is getting ready to leave

Previously on Gilmore Girls...  
"Rory I know you better than anyone, what's going on with you?" Jess asked as he stood outside the bar staring at Rory as if she had grown a third head. "Why are you with that guy? Why aren't you in school? This isn't you!" Jess immediately saw Rory's face drop and felt bad. "Look, we'll catch up in a few weeks, maybe." He said quietly. Jess starts to walk off and then turns back, "oh...Happy Birthday." And with that last comment and a grin he walks off leaving Rory standing there alone.

Rory stands there, her arms pulled tightly to her chest, staring in the direction that Jess had gone off in. _This is insane. What the hell...? Jess..._ She's stunned. She's absolutely stunned. She wonders how Jess, Jess who dropped out of high school, has managed to pull his life together. Now she's the one who has dropped out, given up, has turned into a horrible person. _He's right, this is not me..._ She turns and walks back towards the bar, ready, or somewhat ready, to try and fix her life.

Logan was still sitting at the table, enjoying his third scotch, or was it his fourth, he couldn't remember, and frankly he didn't care. _Who was this little punk who thought that he could just waltz right in there and move in on Rory, no sir, no one does that to a Huntzberger...Huntzberger, jeez, what I wouldn't give to not have to deal with that legacy right now._ Logan thought as he watched Rory come back into the bar. "Rory." he said, standing, "I didn't know what you wanted to drink." he stated, staring at her.

Rory looked away and sighed. "It's a good thing that the only thing that matters is what _you're_ drinking." She gave him a moment, to let that sink in, before continuing, although she knew that it wouldn't really sink in, not even if he was sober. "God, Logan, you were such a jerk! What is your problem!"

"He comes here and is all..." he gestures obscurely around Rory, "and you dated him before. He's such a punk anyway," Logan said going off into his own little world, "and doesn't have any balls either because he didn't even take a pop at me. I was hoping he'd take a pop at me. And his stupid retort, well he is a writer...they are sensitive after all."

_I'm proud of him, because he didn't take a 'pop' at you. The old, bad-boy Jess would have. But he's different, he's changed. He wrote a book for crying out loud! An intelligent book. Logan couldn't write a good book, like that, even if his daddy held his hand!_ Rory stared off into space, then looked up, as he started droning on about getting another drink. "You. Are. An. asshole," She said slowly, emphasizing each word. She started to say, 'You don't treat people like that', but then realized that she'd be a hypocrite to say it, and stopped herself. "Honestly!"

"I am not," Logan whined as he searched the bar. He pointed over to a table in the corner, "see, that's the folk singer, I bought them a round of drinks to make up for last time." Logan said slurring his words. He turned back to Rory like a puppy waiting for praise after being smacked on the snout.

"Logan!... Ah! I can't handle this! I can't deal with this! I've become a horrible, bitchy, stupid, slutty version of myself, that I had promised myself I would NEVER be. I don't talk to my mother, I dropped out of YALE, I live with my grandparents and I'm in the DAR!" She exclaimed, as she threw her head back, and her hands in the air, in exasperation. She needed someone to support her, now. She did not need to have to babysit him.

"No, Logan. No! I don't want to go with you. I don't want to talk to you right now, especially not when you're like this." Rory said, as she tried to pull away from him, which only made him hold on tighter. "Logan, I am not going with you!" She yelled, and slapped at his hand to free her own.

She walked behind him, and pulled his arm, to turn him around to her. "Logan. Take a taxi home, please. Don't drive like this," she said, feeling a sharp pang of guilt. _This is me, you know that._ His words echoed in her head. She did know that...she did. "Please." 

Logan spun around and looked at Rory, he didn't want to argue, but he didn't necessarily want to stand around and be treated like a child, "I will, if you share a cab." he said trying to muster a smile.

"I..." She trailed off. _I wonder how stupid I am for considering running after Jess? He's probably not out there anyways...and with my luck I would turn the corner and get mugged._ She started to nod. "Okay."

"Great," Logan said as he put his arm around her shoulder and began walking them toward the door, "so let's go out there and grab a cab, and get home." he said somewhat suggestively, as they made their way out the door.

_Home._ At that very moment she realized that she had to get away from her grandparents house. That was not her home. "Um. Irregardless of everything going on with us, and whatnot... could we stop at my grandparents house, so I could...pick up..." She glanced at him before continuing, "everything...?" She had no idea what she was going to do, about them, and Jess and all of that. But she knew that it would be alot to think about. And all she knew then was that she liked having Logan... even if it was just in means of having _someone_ there.

Logan looked at her a bit confused by this sudden change of attitude, "Maybe I should cut back on the drinking," he muttered. "Okay, we'll drop you off first." he said as he began waving wildly in the direction of the cabs that the tavern apparently had on call every night.

"No, no. I don't want to be dropped off. I would prefer a momentary stop, and then a go, again." She nodded to herself. "I definitely don't want to stop. I want out." _That didn't make sense. _She looked at him, to see if he followed or not.

"Oh," Logan's eyes lit up, "you want to spend another night at Paris's house dontcha?" he winked at her and kissed her on the cheek. 

She put her arm around him and shivered. "Paris and I are becoming the best of friends these days," she said as they approached the cab.

Logan took off his jacket and wrapped it around Rory's shoulders, "I thought you were mad at me." he whispered in her ear as he opened the cab door. And then a strange look crossed his face. "Wait, why are we taking a cab?" he asked her, puzzled.

"I am," she said firmly, and then laughed. "We were taking a cab because you're too gone to drive, but I guess since I'm coming too, that I can drive us, cause it would be stupid to leave your car here."

"Sounds like a plan, Ace," Logan said as he handed the cab driver a ten and closed the door, "We won't be need the ride after all," he said as they walked off toward his silver Porsche. Logan opened up the driver door for Rory and let her in then went around and got in. "If you want to crash the car to piss of my dad or because you're mad at me, that's fine, just don't kill us in the process," he said as he eased his seat into a more reclined position.

She just looked at him. "Yeah, like I would really crash someone's car. Even if they had plenty of money to buy every student at Yale a new car, I still wouldn't do it." She told him, not sure if he was joking or not, but being blatantly serious, annoyed by how much money he has.

"I'm not sure everyone at Yale, maybe just all the upperclassmen," Logan said glancing over at her, "y'know we should call Finn and see if he ever made it home the other night, after they escaped...er...ran off." He said changing the subject.

She started the car and drove down the road, heading in the direction of her grandparents. She chose to ignore his stupidity, and would have kept on driving in silence, had it not been for a sudden object darting in her way, causing her to slam on the brakes and shriek. "Oh my God!" She clenched the wheel as a familiar face lit up, thanks to the headlights.

"Jesus!" Logan yelled as he sat upright. "I was only kidding about crashing the car, Ace." he looked out, "what the...?" 

Jess stood there, staring at the car. "Do you think you own the road?" he yelled at it, not realizing Rory was driving. "What the hell is the matter with you, can't you see a person walking here?"

He turned and started to walk off, staying much closer to the grass this time.

"Jess..." She whispered. She moved the car forward a bit, and then stopped again, and rolled down the passenger window. "Jess!" She yelled. "You don't have a car?" _Should I ask him for a ride? Would Logan kill me if I did? ... Would Jess kill me if I did?_ She looked over at Logan, and grabbed his hand. "Play nice, please," she whispered to him.

Logan glared at the window but didn't say anything.

"Rory?" he said confused, and then recovering, "Yes, of course I have a car, how else do you think I followed you here?" he pointed out. "I'm just...taking a walk." He paused and caught eyes with her then looked over at Logan, "looks like you two should be getting back, I'll see you around maybe." and he faced the ground and started walking again.

"Oh," She said simply, and tightened her grip on Logan's hand. She mentally begged him to just keep his mouth shut, for once. "Well, watch out for oncoming traffic," She told him, wondering if she could possibly sound any more stupid.

Jess glanced up at her, "yeah, and avoid people, they might decide to jump out in front of that car. Big law suits and all."

Logan who had been silent for this interaction couldn't keep silent any longer. "Oh, so was that your plan? Get hit by my car, so you could afford to keep up the scribbling of yours?" he asked in his most arrogant slurred voice. "Maybe write about the injustices of the rich getting everything and running over people in their way?" he asked being both figurative and literal. Logan grinned to himself. _I think I sound rather intelligent for being slightly inebriated_. 

Rory dropped Logan's hand. "Jess..." She started, but saw that he was walking away already. She pulled the car forward a bit, and glanced over at Logan, who had shut his eyes and had put his head back. "Jess!" She yelled, and waited for him to glance over at her, so she could mouth the words, 'I'm sorry'.

Jess gave the car a sideways glance but didn't look up all the way. Logan took this opportunity to open up his mouth yet again, "C'mon, let's just go. He clearly wants nothing to do with us, or you, and isn't man enough to fight back, or even give me a good tongue lashing." Logan said to Rory, making sure he was speaking loud enough for Jess to hear.

Jess tensed but didn't say anything in response. "Good night Rory." he said concisely as he kept walking, hoping she would drive away with that moron.

Rory sighed. "Bye, Jess." She pulled away from the curb and drove off, feeling like an idiot, once again, and wondering what to say to Logan. "Why couldn't you just... not say anything? Why couldn't you do that for me?" She asked a few blocks later. 

Jess stared at the car partly wishing she hadn't driven away. Clearly she had things to deal with, without him messing them up again. _Shake it off_, he thought to himself as he continued carrying his empty gas can to the station he saw a few blocks down the road, _Why am I always saying goodbye to her_? He cringed at that thought.

Logan turned toward her, "you can't be serious? You rather spend your night in a stuffed up room with him, talking about some fifth grade writing assignment?" 

"Logan. Do you know him? Do you know him at all?" She paused. "No. No you don't. So until you know him, quit bad mouthing him for godsakes!" She yelled. "Can we just quit talking about him? Take a nap or something." She turned the car onto a new road, headed for her grandparents. "Gosh. Do you want me to just stay at my grandparents again?"

"I can't freaking believe this, you're sitting in my car defending some guy, some guy you used to date." Logan was yelling by now. "Maybe you should stay at your grandparents tonight," he said turning to face the window. "or for maybe quite a while."

"And I can't believe that you're...what...jealous enough to be worried about it?" She looked over, and became quiet. A few minutes passed in silence. Weird, uncomfortable silence. "Do you really want me to stay at my grandparents?" She finally asked, quietly.

Logan seemed to be a bit lost in the first part of what she said but decided that a response was needed for the second part. "I don't know, stay, go, run around naked, whatever makes you happy. I don't know how to do this part, especially not now. I just wanted a quiet evening with you after that trip to Oklamahoma...Oklahommm...Oclakoma, whatever the hell it is. Plus you know I'm worried about the business but instead you want me to just...deal with all these other insignificant details right now. I can't do it Rory."

"Good to know you consider me insignificant." She replied tartly, choosing to ignore the part about wanting to spend a quiet evening with her. She thought it was funny how he had nothing to say about the jealousy. "The choice is all yours..."

"You're not." Logan said, he felt like pounding his head against a wall, he rubbed his face and tried to concentrate, "he's insignificant and being nice is insignificant. I'm the same guy I've always been, tonight has just been a bunch of bad circumstances. You do what you want Rory, I'm not trying to tell you what to do." he said pointedly, referencing her constant commanding of him over the course of the evening.

She sighed, for what seemed like the twentieth time that night. She really wondered if he had always been this guy. They pulled up in front of her grandparents house. "I have to make some changes, Logan, I can't be living here, anymore, it's ridiculous, I can't stay another night. I really can't..." She took a deep breath. "I'll sleep on the couch, if you want."

"I'll help you pack," he said as he opened up his door and went around to open hers. Once he got her door open he hugged her. "I'm sorry, you know this stuff makes me crazy." he said as he took her hand and started walking toward the front door.

She unlocked the door, and tiptoed in. "We have to be reallyreally quiet," She whispered, "No talking, and you have to tiptoe." They started up the stairs, one by one. When they were almost near the top, she stopped him and pointed to a step. "That one squeaks, you've got to skip it." She giggled watching him tip toe to one side of the stairs, and inching his way up, careful to skip the one she pointed out. They finally made it to her room, and she quickly shut the door, and put the pillow in front of the gap, per usual.

He looked around the room. "I like what you've done with the place." he picked up one of the thicker books that was sitting on the nightstand and started to flip through it when he dropped it on his foot, producing both a loud THUD and a yelp!


	2. If you like Pina Coladas

Title: Another Round

Chapter 2? (This is a WIP)  
Rating: PG

Parings: Rory/Logan with some Rory/Jess (later on)

Spoilers: Nov 8th's episode

A/N: Thanks for all the wonderful reviews and comments! We thrive on them. As for the title, I have no idea if there is another fic by this name, it was an inside joke among the authors, darkangl2025 and swimchic2, and fits into the story in many different ways  
Disclaimer: We forgot to mention no profit is being made from this story. All rights and characters are owned by the genius mind of Amy Sherman-Palladino and her writers and the WB. If you want to sue me, I'm in debt…so I'm not sure, but perhaps that would mean you could pay part of my debt for me. LOL  
A/N part 2: Anyway on with the story. And for the Logan/Rory fans this will please you and as for all the Literatis out there, stick with us, we're definitely going to work on that for you. Have faith in us

She froze. "Oh god," she whispered. Thinking quickly, she added, "Get under the bed, hurry, hurry, please get under the bed, you are sooo not allowed in my room, and she'll be here in ten seconds!" She looked frantic. It would be her head, if a boy was caught in her room. She watched as he listened for the first time all night, and bent down and crawled under the bed. "Stay quiet," She whispered, and ran to remove the pillow from in front of the door. Two seconds later she heard a knock as she started coughing, and hopping around on one foot.

"Rory, is everything okay in there." Emily asked as she carefully opened the door. "I don't mean to disturb you but I heard this horrible noise, I thought someone was breaking in." Emily had the door slightly ajar and was scanning the room. "Why are you hopping up and down on one foot? You look like a goose."

Rory smirked and continued hopping around. "Everything is fine grandma," She said in an overly loud manner, just incase Emily could hear Logan's breathing, or something. "I just was looking through this book," She pointed to the book on the floor, "And I thought I saw a spider on the wall, and it really freaked me out, so I dropped the book, and it landed on my toe." She pointed to her toe. "And that is why I'm hoping around, and why I yelled." 

"Oh, well," Emily looked at Rory and the wall suspiciously, "I guess I'll have to make sure to call the exterminators in the morning. Good night." and she closed the door behind her.

"Goodnight, Grandma," She yelled to the door, before collapsing onto her bed. "I think the coast is clear..." She whispered, and broke into a fit of giggles.

Logan slowly crawled out from under the bed. "Next time Ace," he said as he plopped down next to her, "wait for me to get out from under the bed before you jump on it." he said as he pretended to rub his sore ribs. "Were you trying to crush me under there?" He laid down on the bed next to her and pulled her close to him. "Maybe next time you should hide under the bed, and I can be the one afraid of the spider."

Rory laughed. "But that wouldn't work, because then my grandma would know that you were in my room, and that was the whole point..." She said, and swatted at him playfully.

Logan grabbed her hand, "so are you sure you want to escape? It seems like this could work for us." he gestured around the room. "We have...a bed...and blankets...and curtains...and whatever that big poofy pink object is in the corner." he said pointing.

Rory realized what she was doing and mentally hit herself in the head. _What am I thinking? After what Jess told me. I totally agree with him. I would never... be doing this. Not in a million years... But what do I do? Logan has been my only... companion, friend, person in my life, for the past few months, I don't know what to do... _Rory quickly stood up. "Lets start packing, we need to hurry before she comes back."

Logan stood up, "ok." he said quietly, "You don't happen to have any aspirin do you, I think I'm getting a headache."

She dug into her purse, and came up with a bottle of Aleve. "It's sort of one of those things for cramps, that I take... but it works for headache's, too." She handed him the bottle, and opened her closet and quietly pulled out her suitcase and began cramming everything possible into it. 

Logan popped the bottle and took two out and swallowed them. "It's gonna be a long night," he mumbled to himself and then to Rory asked, "do you have another bag or suitcase or something we can throw the rest of your stuff into?"

She looked around. "Uh... oh!" She rushed over to the bed, and grabbed a pillow, then proceeded to pull the pillow out of the pillowcase. "We'll use this 1000 thread Egyptian cotton pillowcase," She said and laughed. "At least we know it won't rip, or anything." She tossed it to him, and sat on her suitcase, in an attempt to zip it shut.

Logan looked down at the pillow case he was holding, "should we paint a black dollar sign on it?" he asked as he walked over to her book case. "Um Rory..." he looked back at her, "maybe my perspective is a bit off, but why don't you just take the necessities, I'm sure your grandmother would send your stuff after you."

Rory looked at him, frowning. "Okay, have you ever met my grandmother? She would soooo not send me anything..." She laughed in spite of it, and managed to get the zipper halfway around the suitcase.

"I'm trying to make this stupid suitcase shut!" She suddenly felt her eyes starting to water. "I... Logan, what am I doing? I don't know what to do. I need..." She trailed off, afraid to say it, and frantically kept trying to get the zipper to shut.

"You need what?" Logan asked gently, as he went ahead and zipped the suitcase for her, "What's wrong? Why do you need to do this? Aren't things good? I mean I know you are mad about the pool house but they can't leave you in this room forever."

"How did you make that look so easy?" She asked looking at him incredulously. "No, they could leave me in this room forever, they could treat me like a baby forever, they could make me promise to never have to give away my 'sweater', although it's a little late for that, forever. They could trap me in this room! They could lock the door and slip in food through the bottom! I could grow old in this room, wearing that dress." She pointed to the one hanging on the door, and paused to look at him, before falling into his arms with a 'huff'.

Logan hugged her, "hey, it's going to be ok." He said softly while he stroked her hair. "Plus I doubt Emily would do that to you, she likes the way you run the DAR events, so you couldn't be that much of a prisoner."

"Oh my gosh. And that! That is just torture!" She exclaimed. "I can't be doing that either!" She looked up at him. "This may be you," She said, and pointed at him. "But this," She pointed to herself, "this is not me."

"So now you resent me for who I am? For this world that you now live in?" Logan was getting tired of Rory changing her attitude every five minutes. "I'm sorry, but you chose this Rory, you knew all that it entailed before you made these decisions, so now you just want to back out on me, Ace?" he added trying to sound less harsh.

"I don't know what I want..." She whispered, looking defeated. "I really don't know. I don't resent you. I do know that much. I think I resent myself, actually."

"So getting out of here will make you resent yourself less..." Logan said slowly wrapping his mind around things. "Let's get you packed and out of here." He paused for a second, "are you going to stay with me?" he asked, not sure of where she planned on going if she left her grandparents house.

She gave him a look that had 'i'm sorry' written all over it. "I don't know..." She jumped up again, and grabbed her suitcase and purse. "Are we ready? Can you think of anything else important?" She looked around and spotted the book sitting on her chair, she quickly stuffed it into her purse, trying to be nonchalant, by grabbing a few other books around it.

"You know that I'm used to spontaneity," Logan said as he looked around the room to make sure she had most of her stuff, "but you do need a place to stay." he said. "Because the guys at the club wouldn't like me to be seen with someone who sleeps in the gutter," he teased.

"You know I've always wondered what it would like to be a baglady..." She grinned at him, and then put her finger to his lips. "Time to be quiet again," She told him, and opened the door and peeked into the hall, before motioning him to quickly follow her.

Logan snuck out of the room after Rory making mock-Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible gestures the entire way downstairs. They got to the front door and went outside, once the door was shut he turned to Rory. "I assume you're taking your car and meeting me at my place?" he questioned.


	3. Barney Can Count

Title: Another Round  
Chapter 3  
Rating: PG  
Parings: Rory/Logan with some Rory/Jess (later on)  
Spoilers: Nov 8th's episode  
Disclaimer: We forgot to mention no profit is being made from this story. All rights and characters are owned by the genius mind of Amy Sherman-Palladino and her writers and the WB. If you want to sue me, I'm in debt…so I'm not sure, but perhaps that would mean you could pay part of my debt for me. LOL

A/N: Thanks for all the wonderful reviews and comments! We thrive on them. Let us know if you think we're staying in character and what changes we should make or what we need to work on and once again, all you Literatis out there be patient. We'll get there, (hopefully). 

"Oh, I hadn't even thought of that." She glanced over at her car that was still parked in the driveway, from earlier. "That sounds good, so I won't have to come back for it or anything." She nodded at him. "See you in a few minutes."

"See you, Ace," he said and gave her a quick peck as he walked her to her car and opened the door. He then through her stuff in the back seat and walked back to his car and got in and drove off toward his house.

She looked at the house one last time as she started her car, and pulled away. She felt sort of bad. They did let her stay there for a good 3 months, at least. She remembered about the DAR thing that was planned for the following. She knew she couldn't just not show up altogether. That would be horrible, and incredibly irresponsible. She decided that she would go to the event, and then resign after that. She thought about all of this as she followed Logan home. Tomorrow she would get her life back...well, at least 50 of it.

Logan pulled into his normal spot and glanced in his mirror to see Rory pulling in behind him. He got out and shut his door, fidgeting with his keys as he waited for her to get out of her car. "So, my room or guest room?" he asked giving her a charming smile.

She looked at the ground, and concentrated at her shoes. _Why does life have to be complicated? Gosh. I can't handle this. I... I want my mom. I miss my mom._ She bent down and untied her shoelace so that she could buy herself more time. She immediately realized where she should really go, and looked at her watch. She sighed. _It's past twelve, I can't go there this late. _She was going to go tomorrow. She finally stood up. She really didn't want to make him mad again. She didn't want to deal with that all over. "I'll... sleep in yours."

Logan gave her a skeptical look, but didn't say anything. "I'm really tired, from all the traveling I've done today." he simply stated as he led her into the house and into his room. He got changed and lay in bed facing away from her and yawned loudly.

Rory announced that she really had to pee, and took her clothes and changed in his bathroom. She came out wearing flannel pajama bottoms and a t-shirt. Was this going to be her last night here? Did she want it to be her last night there? She was pretty sure she did. She climbed into the other side of the bed and pulled up the covers. "I'm sorry for being so troublesome," She said, and leaned into his back.

"Well I think you're worth it," he said as he nudged her slightly. He grinned, "good night, Ace."

"Good night," She said softly, and laid her head on his shoulder, realizing how exhausted she was. She thought of Jess' book in her bag, and smiled. _He wrote a book!_ This was the last thing she thought of before falling into a graceful slumber.

Meanwhile...

"Full tank of gas, now let's see if you can actually make it home." Jess said to his car as he turned the key in the ignition. It sputtered a few times and then started. "Thank god," he said as he pulled out from the now almost empty parking lot and got on the highway to drive back to Stars Hollow. It was 2AM, his mom and TJ should be asleep by now, he thought as he turned onto the too familiar roads, past the bridge, "I really need to get a life," he said to himself, trying to wipe thoughts of Rory out of his head, "she's with that asshole now." he paused as a thought hit him, "and I thought Dean was bad."

Rory woke with a jolt. She looked over at the clock. 3:45. She knew it would be impossible to go back to sleep. She slowly climbed out of bed, careful not to wake Logan up, and reached for her purse. She tiptoed out of the room, shutting the door behind her, and into the living room, where she turned on a small lamp, and searched her purse frantically, worried that somehow she could have lost his book. She finally found it and pulled it out, grinning. It made her feel better, just looking at it. She opened it up to page 1, and started reading, not even considering the fact that Logan could wake up at anytime.

Logan woke up and glanced at the clock, it was 8:12. He stretched and reached over for Rory. But there was no Rory. He sat up slowly and rubbed his face, _did I dream the whole thing?_ he wondered, but then he saw Rory's clothes folded neatly on the chair. He got up to go look for her, no one else was awake yet and he walked slowly through the house hissing, "Rorrryyy." He found her curled up on the couch. "What are you doing out here?" he whispered as he sat down next to her, "do I snore?"

Rory jerked her head up, and she slammed the book shut. Thinking, regretfully, that he made her lose her page. "Oh my gosh! You scared me!" She shrieked. She slipped the book under her blanket, and into her purse, which was also under the blanket. "I just couldn't sleep," She said, recovering. "And you snore like my grandfather," She joked.

Logan looked around the house, "do you think you could be any louder?" he asked her quietly. "And Richard doesn't snore, or at least I've never noticed."

He wrapped his arms around her, "that isn't a very nice thing to say." he said as he felt something strange under the blanket he grasped the object with his hand and pulled her purse from under the blanket. "Planning on pulling out a revolver and shooting me like in one of those movies from the 20s?" he joked as he pretended to search for a gun and instead felt a book. "What is the newest must-read on Rory's list these days?" he questioned as he slid the book out of her purse, and disregarded her protesting hands. "Subsect..."he read aloud, "by Jess...Mariano." he paused, "you're actually reading this trash?" he asked.

She tried to pull the book out of his hands. "Yes! I am reading this book. He gave it to me, I'm reading it. It's my moral obligation to the universe. I read what is given to me. If you give me Barney Counts and So Can You, I will read it. If you give me a Cuma Sutra book... I will... pretend to read it, for your benefit, and your benefit alone." She nodded along, and had to bite her lip to keep from rambling. "It's all very simple."

"It's Kama Sutra," he corrected, "and I don't think you actually need to read that, it might be more about looking at the pictures." Logan paused and thought for a minute, "are you reading this for his benefit?" he asked slightly agitated.

Logan was almost entirely sure he had no clue what she just said, "whatever you say Ace," he concluded. "So are you going to come back to bed? Or do you have to get up and ready for that DAR thing?"

Rory leapt off the couch. "Oh my gosh! I have to get ready! I completely forgot!" She walked quickly to the bedroom, then turned around and hurried back over to him. She game him a fast kiss, "Your a life saver!" Then she walked quickly back to his bedroom, and put on her clothes from the night before. Tacky, yes, her only option.

Logan was standing in the kitchen making a pot of coffee. He glanced back at the bedroom door and then toward his parents' wing of the house hoping they wouldn't get up. He didn't want to deal with them this morning. When the coffee finished peculating he poured Rory a cup and set it on the counter. "Rory, I made you coffee." he said quietly hoping she'd here him. "So do you want me to stop by this shindig later, in case you need to be saved?"

Rory fixed her hair, gave herself one last look in the mirror, and grabbed her purse. She walked into the kitchen. "Ooh, thank you," She said, grabbing the cup of coffee. "How does one tell one that they are quitting something?" She mused.

"Well there are a few methods, you could steal tons of office supplies and never come back," he said ticking them off on his fingers, "you could just go in say you quit and leave, you could turn in a letter of resignation, you could call up and say that you need a vacation for the next...century." Logan looked up from his hand with the four fingers upright. "It's too early in the morning for me to try to figure this one out for you." He took a sip from her coffee cup, "so about the saving thing...was that a yes or no?" 

"Saying 'I quit' and leaving would be so liberating," She smiled at the idea. "Does that sound too harsh?" She took a sip of coffee. "Oh well, Grandma will get over it," She decided, answering her own question. "No, I think i'll just set a time, and make myself leave by then. How does...hmm... it starts at 9:30. I'll get there at 9:00. How does 11:00 sound?" She asked. "That way I have plenty of time to get things done, and mingle, and direct people, and fight with Grandma, and then say goodbye to people and leave..."

Logan nodded, "I'll drop by at 11 just in case," he said, "and make sure you save me a salmon puff."

Meanwhile at the Gilmore residence...  
"Richard, have you seen Rory?" Emily asked frantically, "Where could that girl be? I saw her last night, when she was jumping around like a goose mumbling about a spider and now she's gone. Doesn't she know we have the DAR event today? How could she just forget about it?" Emily saw a maid walking out of the kitchen, "Bertha!" she called, "Have you seen Rory. She was supposed to be setting up the DAR event today and I haven't seen her." Emily during her interrogations had noticed that the maid wasn't wearing her apron. "And where is your apron? Don't you know that it's part of the uniform. We gave it to you for a reason, the reason is so you can wear it." The maid scuttled off quickly in search of her apron. "Honestly, no one seems to understand anything anymore. Rory is gone. Betty can't wear her full uniform, next thing you know she'll walk out without the blouse on."

Richard smirked, "that would be a sight," and then regaining his composure. "I'm sure Rory hasn't forgotten about the DAR event, she probably went early to set up. Why don't you go down there and see."

"Fine, Richard," Emily said grabbing her coat and purse, "but if she's not there you are going to help me track her down." And with that Emily left.

(stay tuned for Part 4 coming later this week)


	4. Bookmarks and chapters

Title: Another Round  
Chapter 4, WIP  
Rating: PG  
Parings: Rory/Logan with some Rory/Jess (later on)  
Spoilers: Nov 8th's episode  
Disclaimer: We forgot to mention no profit is being made from this story. All rights and characters are owned by the genius mind of Amy Sherman-Palladino and her writers and the WB. If you want to sue me, I'm in debt…so I'm not sure, but perhaps that would mean you could pay part of my debt for me. LOL

A/N: Thanks for all the wonderful reviews and comments! A very special thanks to waxingmoon for catching our piece of missing dialogue. That has been corrected and Chapter 3 has been replaced. And another special thanks to Jamie for pointing out the proper book title, it was obviously late when I was putting this fic together so the errors were obviously there. Thanks for taking the time to tell us so we could fix them. It's much appreciated. And thanks to our loyal readers and reviewers. You're all great. We appreciate the fact that you take the time to read our fic.

Meanwhile at the Gilmore residence...  
"Richard, have you seen Rory?" Emily asked frantically, "Where could that girl be? I saw her last night, when she was jumping around like a goose mumbling about a spider and now she's gone. Doesn't she know we have the DAR event today? How could she just forget about it?" Emily saw a maid walking out of the kitchen, "Bertha!" she called, "Have you seen Rory. She was supposed to be setting up the DAR event today and I haven't seen her." Emily during her interrogations had noticed that the maid wasn't wearing her apron. "And where is your apron? Don't you know that it's part of the uniform. We gave it to you for a reason, the reason is so you can wear it." The maid scuttled off quickly in search of her apron. "Honestly, no one seems to understand anything anymore. Rory is gone. Betty can't wear her full uniform, next thing you know she'll walk out without the blouse on."

Richard smirked, "that would be a sight," and then regaining his composure. "I'm sure Rory hasn't forgotten about the DAR event, she probably went early to set up. Why don't you go down there and see."

"Fine, Richard," Emily said grabbing her coat and purse, "but if she's not there you are going to help me track her down." And with that Emily left.

"We need 8 chairs around every table, which means 8 placemats, glasses, spoons, knifes, forks, plates, bowls, napkins," She announced to the people who helped with the set up of events. "We certainly don't want 7 placemats, and an extra chair at each table, like at this one over here," She pointed. "Lets try to hurry, please, we only have half an hour left before starting time!" She ran around, helping out wherever she could, something that her grandmother would never do. 

_Speak of the devil_, she thought as the one and only Emily Gilmore rushed into the room. _Oh god, is it too late to try and crawl under the table?_ She looked at the table in front of her and started to duck. "Rory Gilmore!" _Too late._ Rory stood up, and straightened her jacket.

"Where have you been young lady? And what on earth are you wearing?" Emily asked pointing and accusing finger at her. "And why are you late!"

"Grandma, I'm early. I've been here for half an hour. I got here even earlier than you did, I AM NOT LATE."

Emily realized that she was proven wrong, but refused to admit it, and quickly moved to her next point. "Well where were you this morning? And why are you wearing that god-awful outfit?"

"I didn't stay at your house last night Grandma, and I didn't have time to go back to your house this morning, and change," Rory answered.

"So you admit that you were late, and that you don't know how to dress properly in the first place?"

Emily made no sense whatsoever, and Rory rolled her eyes. Emily continued. "So you stayed with Paris again?"

Rory laughed. "Yeah, Grandma, I've been staying with Paris 4 nights a week. Don't you think that sounds more than a little insane? I've been staying with Logan. I've been staying with Logan, at his house, with him."

Emily looked as though she might pass out. "That will be the end of that young lady. You're grounded!"

Rory looked at her incredulously. "You can't ground me! I'm over 18, you can't ground me!"

Emily frowned. "Well, just wait till your father hears about this."

"My grandfather. My GRANDFATHER. I am not my mother! You can't treat me like her!"

Emily was taken aback. "As long as you're staying at my house, I will treat you any way I please. You are behaving exactly like your mother, and I am not old enough to be a great-grandmother!"

"You know what grandma?" Rory asked, and looked at her watch. "I packed all of my things and took them with me. I'm moving out of your house. And I quit."

"What do you mean you're moving out? You have nowhere else to stay, no one to support you. And what is this business about quitting? What do you quit? I hope you're talking about quitting that attitude of yours."

"I am moving out. I don't know where I'm staying but I am certainly not going to be staying with you any longer. Thank you for allowing me to do so for as long as you did, it was very kind." She paused for a second to regain composure. "And, I quit..." She gestured around her, "this. I quit this. No more DAR, I officially resign."

Emily's jaw might as well have dropped to the floor. She was speechless.

Rory looked at her watch. "And I think that I may have left my _sweater_ back at Logan's place, so if it's alright with you, I'd better be leaving." Rory made sure to emphasize the part about the sweater. She felt like she was standing up for not only herself, but her mother too.

Emily's simply stared and watched as Rory firmly said 'good-bye', and turned on her heel and waltzed out the door.

She took a deep breath. "A spitting image of her mother...how disappointing...and we had hoped to save her, too..." She muttered, before turning around, and walking to the closest table, where she plastered on her fake smile. "Why hello, Abigail, you're certainly looking mighty spiffy today."

Logan had just gotten out of the shower and dressed when he heard a knock at his bedroom door. "Hang on," he yelled thinking it was one of his parents coming to tell him for the hundredth time that they were going to go to the DAR event.

Rory waited outside the door, and wrung her hands. She paced back and forth, nervously. She was about to do something big. Something drastic. Something that could potentially come back and bite her in the butt. But she had taken what Jess had said to heart, and she was going down the list, one by one, trying to fix things. She wanted to be more like how she used to be. Certainly not 100 like the old Rory, but at least act like maybe a cousin to the old Rory. Waiting for Logan to open the door, was like slowly removing a band-aid off a scrape. She couldn't take it any longer, and just opened the door so that she could get it over with.

Logan glanced back at the door, "oh." he said smiling, "you could have just come in." He went over and kissed her on the cheek, "So are you DAR free now? Taking back your freedom, or whatever it is?"

She stepped backwards. "Yes, I'm free. She acted like I was her daughter! I told her I quit... and she nearly fainted. I feel kind of guilty now, for being so mean, but it felt so good," She said with a nod, and went over and sat in one of his comfy chairs. "Go ahead, and, um, finish getting dressed, or something..."

"Oh, I was finished," he grinned mischievously, "unless you want to help me get undressed. I was afraid that my mom was going to come in here and interrupt about going to the DAR thing or that my dad was going to come in and tell me that we have to go visit another newspaper. But you being here. a much better and welcome entry into..." he gestured around his room, "my humble abode."

"Uh..." She shook her head. "Could we, talk? Just like... sit and talk, and forget about everything else? Just be...completely honest with one another?" She looked down, avoiding his eyes, and waited for his reaction to how she killed the mood.

"Yeah," Logan swallowed, he didn't like where this was going but he wasn't sure what to do to stop it, "sit...talk." he said and sat down at the chair at his desk staring across at her.

"Okay, here's the thing. I've loved being with you, the past couple of months. You've helped me to do things that I never thought I would ever be able to do. You've helped me to broaden my horizons, not be so scared to do new things... I've changed a lot..." Rory said slowly, and decided to pause, to recollect her thoughts, and allowed herself to glance at him.

"Rory..." he said quietly, feeling a lot of things at once, but he decided to use his brain before he ran his mouth, "are you...is this a "Dear John" letter only without the letter?"

She sighed, and reached over and took a gentle hold of his hand. "Logan...I love you...you know that right? That has always been true. It really has. And I feel horrible... but... as much as I love spending time with you, and doing things with you, and how brave I've become with you... I also feel like I've gone off the deep end, like I've changed into this really bad person..." She paused again, as he tried to pull his hand away. She placed her other hand on top of it. "Logan, I... love you, but I don't know that I'm in love with you..." She felt a tear slide down her cheek. "I'm really, truly, so sorry. Don't think that our relationship was a lie or not real or anything, because none of those are true... It was very real." She looked at the floor.

Logan pulled his hand away, "Rory, I..." he faltered for words, "is this about him?" he asked, deciding to choose to be angry over hurt, "That guy that came the other day? You plan on going back to him? Is that what this is? I was just someone to act like a bookmark until you continued reading your book? Someone who you just had to be in a relationship with, that you couldn't just casually date, and yet this is all for nought?"

"Logan, please don't be this way." She shook her head in disbelief. "Please," she begged. "This is not about him. I am not going back to him. He just...made some things click for me. It was a reality check, really. I just realized certain things. You were not a bookmark. You were... a chapter. A very good chapter, that ended with a twist? No..." She tried to backtrack. "I don't think that came out right..." She exhaled deeply. "I really hope that's not what you think...that this was all nothing," She said quietly.

Logan stood up shaking his head, "whatever Rory," he said finally, noncommitally. He walked out of his room and found his cellphone, and started dialing Finn's number, "I'm sure you can see yourself out." he said to her as he continued to not pay very much attention to her at all. "Finn, hey buddy, remember the twins you met the other night at the bar...yeah...you can set me up with one of them." Logan paused and snuck a glance back at Rory, "either one is fine, they are identical after all." he said and forced a chuckle. He pressed the phone closer to his ear, just to make sure that Rory wouldn't be able to see that his phone wasn't really turned on.

to be continued


	5. Honk If You're Not Horny

Title: Another Round  
Chapter 4, WIP  
Rating: PG  
Parings: Rory/Logan with some Rory/Jess (later on)  
Spoilers: Nov 8th's episode  
Disclaimer: We forgot to mention no profit is being made from this story. All rights and characters are owned by the genius mind of Amy Sherman-Palladino and her writers and the WB. If you want to sue me, I'm in debt…so I'm not sure, but perhaps that would mean you could pay part of my debt for me. LOL

A/N: Thanks to everyone who has been reading and reviewing. We hope we aren't disappointing you too badly.

It was Rory's turn to look like she might pass out. She walked around the room, gathering her things in a zombie-like style. She felt like the biggest jerk. She still wanted to see him. She didn't want this to be like a final good-bye. She decided that trying to talk to him right now would be a bad idea, and pulled a piece of paper out of her purse, and a pen. She sat down at his desk and started to write...

_Logan,___

_Please don't hate me. I don't want this to be one of those relationships that ends in bad terms and if we ever were to bump into each other, that we glare at each other, or avoid each other, or are mean to each other. Please, don't do any of those. This is one of three relationships that i've been in, in my life. It meant a lot to me. I'm sorry that you I wouldn't let you see other people, while we were together. I apologize for all the regrets you must have. Maybe we can finish this conversation if you ever cool down. If not, it was good. Have fun...with...the many ladies out there.__  
_  
She started to write 'Love', and realized that that would probably be too soon, and just wrote 'Rory'. She didn't want him to find the note right away and just tear it up without reading it, so she stuck it under his pillow.

She grabbed her bag, and walked out the door, taking one last look at him, as he cracked a joke with Finn, and poured himself a glass of water.

As soon as Rory left, Logan put the phone down, _no reason acting to a non-existant audience_ he thought bitterly. _How could she do this? I loved her, she was the only girl that I could ever really say that about._ He sighed loudly and slumped on the couch. Flipping aimlessly through the tv channels trying not to think about her, and how she had been sitting there next to him only a few hours ago.

Five minutes later, Rory slammed on her brakes at a stop sign and cursed at her steering wheel. She had forgotten The Subsect on Logan's couch. Now wasn't that just the icing on the cake? She hadn't finished reading it. She had to go back and get it. She also didn't want Logan to open it up and find the notes she had written the margins. She had to go back and get it! She flipped a U, and drove back towards his house, in a rush, worried she would get there too little, too late.

Logan finally gave up and through the remote control across the room. "Shit!" he swore. He got up and walked into the kitchen to look for something to eat just to give him something to do, he opened the fridge and slammed it shut. "Dammit!" he yelled at no one in particular. He rubbed his face grabbed his jacket and his keys and decided to go out, away from this place. He opened up the front door and almost walked into Rory who was standing nervously on the porch. "Wha?" he asked and then before she could answer or do anything, he pulled her to him and kissed her with everything he had. He pulled away, "Please tell me you changed your mind." he begged as he searched her eyes.

"You mean a set of twins isn't enough for you?" Rory asked, uncomfortably. "I, um, forgot my...toothbrush. I forgot my toothbrush, my favorite one, you mind if I...?" She didn't wait for an answer and she quickly ran past him, through the kitchen, and into the living room, where she attacked the couch, trying to find it before he caught her. But it wasn't there. Where could it be? Under the couch? Maybe he'd already thrown it away? She heard his footsteps and took off running through his room, and into his bathroom, where she pretended to grab a toothbrush and place it in her bag.

"It was on the coffee table," he said simply as he tossed it across his bed toward her. "And you do know stealing is a crime in this state, so I would like it if you put _my_ toothbrush back before you go." He walked out of his room and out of his house and to his car and sat there not sure what to do. _She doesn't want me_. The thought kept playing through his head.

Rory placed the book in her purse, and removed the toothbrush and put it back by his bathroom sink. She walked outside the front door, and got in her car. She noticed that he was sitting in his car, too. They were sitting in their cars, facing one another. Without even thinking about it, Rory pulled out her cell phone, dialed a number and waited as it rang. She watched him as he looked around in his car.

Logan pulled out his cell phone and glanced at the caller id. _Rory_ He looked over at her sitting in her car gesturing for him to answer. He picked it up. "What now? Did you put the toothbrush back, I'd hate to have to call the cops for a $3 toothbrush, isn't that a violation of your parole?" he asked sounding bitter.

"Yes, I put the toothbrush back," She nodded. "I think your hedges need trimming."

"Fine, I'll let the gardener know," and he snapped his phone closed and became entranced with his steering wheel.

Rory sighed at the sound of the dial tone. She redialed the number and honked her horn at him, daring him to answer. He did, surprisingly enough. "Corduroy. What are your thoughts on corduroy? Did you know that it was originally created because construction workers were getting splinters, so they thought maybe if they made lines run that way, that they would prevent the splinters. Apparently they didn't consider the fact that splinters can run either way."

Logan gave her a "what the hell" look through his windshield. "Don't you have someplace to be?" he asked her curtly. "Or do you just want to continue to drive that knife in my back?"

She turned on her mist thingy, and turned her windshield wipers on. "Am I really...? I'm sorry. I'm not trying to. I just can't...not ever talk to you...ever again... I can't do that."

"You made that decision didn't you?" Logan asked knowing that Rory's mist was blocking him from seeing her face and her from seeing his. He didn't want her to see how sad he looked at that moment.

She turned her windshield wipers up. "I didn't make the decision that we would never speak again!"

"No, you made that decision when you told me that we were over." he yelled into the phone and slammed his hand down on the steering wheel causing the horn to honk. "This is ridiculous" he said and prepared to hang up again.

She turned her windshield wipers off, and stared at the water streaming down her window. "Don't hang up," She whispered, and wiped at her face, feeling like her front window must have felt. "I agree with you. This," Rory took a deep breath, "is ridiculous. Us doing...whatever it is what we're doing, does not mean that I don't want to talk to you, or see you. If that's the decision you're making...well, then I guess I can't really stop you..."

Logan decided that he couldn't take this anymore, he got out of his car and clicked his phone closed and walked over to her door and opened it. "What do you want?" he asked her, "how do you want us to be. I know I don't want to be without you, but you said it was over." He waited, trying his best to be patient.

Rory looked at him. "Friends without benefits? I don't know, Logan. I don't know. I just... I will miss you. If we don't ever speak again, and this is it. I will miss you." She looked at her steering wheel, and eventually just lay her forehead onto it. "I'm sorry. I suck. Go ahead and hate my guts. Good bye."

"Rory," his voice was strained, "after that speech you gave me, after the Birkin bag, after everything we've been through, you think all that this was, was committed friends with benefits?" he asked exasperated. "I thought you said you needed a relationship," his throat was getting dry, "and I told you I would try to be a good boyfriend. And then you say that you don't want to be friends with benefits, but just friends...I thought..." he couldn't continue and looked away.

"Logan!" She exclaimed into her steering wheel. "No. No, no no. Don't think that. Oh my god. Do you think that? Really? No!" She shook her head, lifted it and slammed it into her steering wheel, causing the horn to honk. "No! I am not saying that our relationship was just friends with benefits. No. Our relationship had nothing to do with sex. I mean, there was sex, yes, but I wasn't there for the sex. And I certainly don't think you were, at least I hope not..." She rambled off. "And, really, you can stop faking being crushed, because you have a double date tonight, don't you? You're sure to get laid," She said referring to his previous phone conversation.

Logan swallowed and took a breath, "right. yeah...except for a phone to work it needs to be turned on, Ace." he said matter-of-factly, not explaining much at all to her. He decided to give up the macho attitude, and went with honesty, "you were my first real girlfriend, and right now I just don't know what to do, I thought...I don't know what I thought but I didn't think you were going to just give up on us like this..." he looked at his watch. "I have to go, send me a change of address card or something." he said and turned back toward his car. "I love you," he said quietly hoping that she wouldn't hear him and walked back toward his car.

She was stunned. Was she giving up?...Yeah, she was. He hadn't done anything wrong, really. Besides being an #$ to Jess. But she couldn't run back to Jess. Could she? Who says he'd even want her back? How could she just do this to Logan? And he...wow... She felt like such a hypocrite. "I'm...not giving up," She called after him. "Wait, Logan," She said a little louder, and tried to get out of her car, but nearly fell out when she realized she was still buckled in. She quickly unbuckled herself, and climbed out. "Logan, wait!" She caught up to him, just as he sat down in his car and closed his door. She re-opened his door. "I'm not giving up. Okay? I'm just... asking for... a pause? Can we just pause so I can figure some things out? If this is going to... work... at all... I'm going to need help. I just need to think, before I decide things."

to be continue…


	6. Stability Revisited

Title: Another Round  
Chapter 6, WIP  
Rating: PG/PG-13  
Parings: Rory/Logan, Rory/Jess, Lorelai/Luke  
Spoilers: Nov 8th's episode  
Disclaimer: We forgot to mention no profit is being made from this story. All rights and characters are owned by the genius mind of Amy Sherman-Palladino and her writers and the WB. If you want to sue me, I'm in debt…so I'm not sure, but perhaps that would mean you could pay part of my debt for me. LOL

"Oh God!" Logan threw his hands up in the air, "one minute we're breaking up, the next minute we're friends, then we're pausing." he huffed. He saw her face and was afraid she was going to call the pause off again, he grabbed her hand. "Look, I will try to deal with this, I'll pause, but call me, talk to me, let me know what you want, what you're doing. If you need anything." he looked up at her, "I really do have to go now, but can I," he paused unsure of if he should even ask this, "can I kiss you goodbye?"

Rory nodded, and kissed him gently. "Oh wait! Wait, wait, wait. I have to go get something, again." She laughed. "One second!" She rushed back into his house, back into his room, and dug the note out from under his pillow and ripped it up. She proceeded to walk back out of the house and walked over to his car, waving her hand in the air. "Minor detail." She lowered herself to his car window and bent down. "I'm sorry I'm such a pain. Thanks for understanding."

"I've never even pretended to," he said and half-smiled as her. "If you need anything...call." he said and turned the ignition and waited for Rory to get in her car and pull out.

Rory laughed, and walked over to her car. She got in and started it, before pulling out, with a wave. She mentally put a check next to 'Logan', on the list in her head. Next stop: Stars Hollow. She smiled as she drove in that direction.

Lorelai was sitting at a stool in the diner waiting for Luke to come out from the kitchen. "Luke!" She yelled, "I'm not getting any younger and I have errands to run, and the men, they need their donuts, and if they don't have their donuts, they can't work, and if they can't work, then they'll be here forever fixing the house. And you said you wanted them gone soon...so bring out the donuts...or else, I'll have to go behind the counter and get them myself and I'm not going to use the donut-grabber-thing either. And you hate it when I don't use the donut-grabber-thing." Lorelai took a sip of her coffee, _it's fun to date the diner man_, she thought happily.

"Don't you come behind my counter!" Luke yelled. "I'll be there in one second!" He grinned to himself, as he grabbed a plate containing a grilled cheese sandwich, and walked out of the swinging door. He delivered the food to the squat woman sitting in the far right corner, and walked back behind the counter. He saw her chewing and looked at her suspiciously. "You took a donut!"

"Wha?" Lorelai gasped and looked all around her, "you must be kidding. Lil' ol' me...taking a donut...from all the way over there?" She exaggerated her movements and attempted to reach the donut container from her stool, unsuccessfully, "why that's pure madness. How could you think such a thing of me, Lukey-wukey?"

"I could think that because I know how conniving you become around food, but it's a good thing I love you, or you'd be leaving without your donuts," he said firmly, adding a nod to the end.

"But they aren't for me!" Lorelai whined, "there for the guys, the fix-it guys." She took another sip of coffee and then added, "and they need coffee, lots and lots of coffee to go with their donuts."

"And they want that coffee as black as it comes, correct?" He asked, looking at her, as he started to put a bunch of donuts into a bag.

"Well I do have cream and sugar at the house," she said definitely, "because you know Joe likes his with cream, although I have no clue how he can drink it like that. And Steve likes it with sugar and half and half, and Bob, or was it Mike," she looked up at him and smiled, "just give it to me black, Butch," she pretended to draw a pistol like in the old western movies "and no one gets hurt."

He handed her a huge jug of coffee, and kissed her over the counter. "Dinner tonight?"

"Only if you're cooking," she smiled slyly at him, and got up from her stool, grabbed the coffee and bag of donuts and walked toward the door, "Oh, and make sure you wear the cute apron." And with that she walked out of the diner and headed back toward her house.

He shook his head, as he wiped the counter, and watched her walk away. 

Meanwhile...

Rory approached Stars Hollow, and wondered whether her mom would be at the Inn, or at the house, or at Luke's, or where... She decided she'd just cruise around until she found her. She didn't want to call. She wanted it to be a surprise.

Lorelai was almost home when she saw a familiar silver car driving down an opposite street. "Rory?" she asked the air in front of her. She glanced back toward the street but the car had driven off, "I'm losing my mind." She thought sadly as she continued toward her house.

Rory decided to just drive around to those different places, until she found Lorelai. She stopped at the Inn first. Rory saw no sign of her mother's car anywhere. She pulled away and drove towards her house. 

She pulled into the driveway just as she saw the front door closing. _Well she's obviously home. Here goes nothing... Maybe I should call first? Nah, I want it to be a suprise._ She got out of her car, and quietly closed the door. She walked across the grass, and over to the front door. She took a deep breathe before knocking.

"Okay boys, we've got the coffee, we've got the cream over there, the sugar right here," Lorelai said pointing, "and some donuts, but Luke stiffed us so there might not be enough for everyone." she said smirking. She heard a knocking. "Oh come on Pete, we've been through this, you can come in without knocking." she yelled to the door.

"Do you have any extra hard hats?" Rory yelled back. "Do I need one of those?" She silently added, _maybe an umbrella._

Lorelai stopped what she was doing and stood there. "Rory," she whispered and headed for the front door. "Rory." she called. "ROOORRRYYYY!" she yelled as she approached the front door and saw her daughter standing there. "You're home?" Lorelai asked confused and unsure of what to do.

"Mom!" Rory waved her hands around. "I'm hooooome!" She paused. "Now, I'm serious about the hard hat. Am I allowed in?"

Lorelai rushed to her daughter and hugged her. "You're home!" she squealed and jumped up and down. "And no you don't need a hard hat, this isn't a construction zone...well it is, but not that kind of construction zone. We have coffee." she said proudly as she slowly pulled away. "I want to hear everything. How are you? Have you eaten? Do you need us to unpack? Do you have your books? More importantly are you going back to Yale?"

"Ooh, coffee! And the house? Wow..." She looked around in amazement. "I'm good. I quit DAR. I haven't eaten since this morning. I don't think unpacking is quite necessary. I dont' have my books, and yes, I'm definitely going back to Yale! I got a job, too!" She hugged her tightly. "I'm so sorry. I've been so stupid," She said quietly. "It's all my fault. I can't believe we were apart for so long!"

Lorelai hugged her again, "it was my fault too." She said sadly, "let's never be apart like that again." Lorelai felt something hitting against the back of her leg, and turned around to look, "oh and this is Paul Anka." Lorelai said. "Paul Anka, this is Rory."

"Oh my gosh!" Rory exclaimed. "You got a dog? Luke let you get a dog!" She bent down to the dog. "Has she been feeding you?"

"Of course I've been feeding him. I'm very responsible, I have a whole list of things he's afraid of and likes and dislikes. I let him play with my shoes too...he lines them up, but then won't put them back. We're still working on that one, aren't we Paul Anka?" Lorelai said sitting down next to Rory and the dog.

"Wow...so many things have changed. And the house looks so different. And the Inn? How is the Inn? How's Sookie? The baby? Luke? Tell me everything!" Rory told her, and patted the dog on the head.

"The inn's good, Sookie's good, the baby's good, godmother, Luke is very good," Lorelai smiled, "so want to go to Luke's?" she asked trying to get them out of the mess.

"Ooooh, Luke's! Coffee! Fries! It's been so long!" Rory exclaimed dramatically.

"Guys, do you need anything before we go?" Lorelai called toward the kitchen. She didn't get a response so she shrugged, "ok, Paul Anka, keep guard on the donuts, we'll be back soon." She grabbed her purse and the two girls headed back out the door. _She's back!_ Lorelai kept squealing in her mind.

Rory linked her arm through her mothers as they walked in the direction of Lukes. "So, I know you don't like him, but you should be glad to hear that Logan and I are on a break... and I moved out of Grandma and Grandpa's."

"Really. I would have loved to see my mother's face when you told her. 'How can you leave? Whatever will you do?'" Lorelai mocked her mother's voice.

Rory laughed in spite of it. "She got the two of us confused. She tried to ground me, and said 'wait til your father hear's about this'."

Lorelai gasped, "Oh my god, she actually said that. Tell me that you have that on tape, we can use it to get her admitted to an old folks home." Lorelai said gleefully.

Rory laughed. "It was... wow... I felt so liberated, standing up for the both of us."

"Aww, I'm sorry you had to see her like that hun," Lorelai said as they walked. "So you are moving back home, right? Like into your room? I'll have to move Paul Anka out, but I'm sure he'll be okay with that."

"I'm moving home!" Rory grinned. "As long as it's okay? Is it okay? Because if it's not okay I can just live in the backyard... or um... somewhere... in my car? That could be interesting..."

"Of course you can move back in!" Lorelai squealed, "I've missed you so much! I've been suffering from lack of movie nights and having my best friend around."

"Aww," Rory said. "I have too. Never. Leaving. Ever. Again," Rory said, drawing out the words. "Not unless I am physically detached from your hip."

"That's my emotionally stable girl," Lorelai said and squeezed her arm. "So," she said as they walked into the almost completely empty diner, "you broke up with Logan?"

"Uh, well, we're on a 'pause', whatever that means. I don't know what I want... I, uh..." Rory wondered whether or not she should tell her mom about Jess. She decided not to, for the time being, and trailed off.

"Well one day at a time," Lorelai said, even trying to sound supportive, "hang on a sec, I'm gonna see where that diner man has gone to." She went into the kitchen to find Luke taking inventory of some supplies.

"Luke!" she exclaimed and hugged him, causing him to drop his clipboard. "She's back! Rory's back." Lorelai kissed him. "She's out front," she said breathless.


	7. Roses are Purple

Title: Another Round  
Chapter 7, WIP  
Rating: PG/PG-13  
Parings: Rory/Logan, Rory/Jess, Lorelai/Luke  
Spoilers: Nov 22nd's episode  
Disclaimer: No profit is being made from this story. All rights and characters are owned by the genius mind of Amy Sherman-Palladino and her writers and the WB. 

"She's back?" Luke looked astonished. "I wonder if... wow, I wonder if Jess went and talked to her, did she say anything about him?"

"Jess?" Lorelai looked confused, "why would Jess go see her? How would Jess even know where she was?" Lorelai looked at Luke suspiciously.

Luke looked at her, flustered. "I, um, guess that's a no?" He rubbed his forehead. "Fries? Would you like some fries? A burger, maybe? A milkshake?"

"Ooh a milkshake. With fries and burgers. Must be chocolate." Lorelai paused, "so you told Jess to go see Rory?"

Luke shook his head. "No, no, no. He came here and asked about her, and I...possibly told him what was going on, and that she was staying with your parents. That's it." He gave Lorelai's order to Ceasar, and pulled her out of the kitchen behind him.

"Luke, how could you do that?" She half-yelled at him. "You should have at least told me." Lorelai sighed, she didn't want to let anything ruin her daughter's return. She glanced over at Rory who was looking up at them. "I hope you remembered to add coffee to that order, buster." She told him and she headed back toward Rory. 

"We'll talk about it later," Luke said quietly before falling Lorelai over to the table. "Rory, it's good to see you. It's been awhile. He gave her one of his awkward hugs, with a grin. "What can I get you?"

"Ooh," Lorelai said getting one of her evil grins, "you should order everything, you haven't eaten here in such a long time I think you deserve it. He could make the entire menu and serve it while wearing a pink frilly apron." She grinned at Rory and then looked up at Luke with one of her 'I'm an angel' smiles.

Rory looked up at look and smiled. "I'll take whatever she's having...and a piece of pie... and nacho's..." She looked around, trying to think of anything else she could possibly want. "I think that's good for now."

Luke nodded and walked back to the kitchen. "It'll be ready in a few...it's good to have you back."

Lorelai sat in the stool and tried not to ask anything about Jess even though she wanted to know what had happened a little at a time, she told herself. "So...you're back, kiddo. Really back. We should celebrate or something."

"We should!" Rory exclaimed. "What shall we do? Where shall we go? Who shall we tell?" Rory took a huge sip of coffee, and sighed. "I've missed this."

"Aww, me too." Lorelai said grinning big. "So what do you want to do? The world is yours, you get to pick."

"Aah...bookstore?" Rory suggested with a sneaky grin. "I know how you love it so. I haven't been to the Stars Hollow Bookstore in such a long time!" Rory looked excited just talking about it. She also wondered whether Jess would have his book there or not.

"Oooh, and on the way we should go on a tour of the town so you can see all the changes that have been made, and then we should stop at the Inn for lunch, I know Sookie would want to see you." Lorelai grinned. "Okay, well for dinner, since this is obviously lunch." Lorelai said as she saw Luke come out with quite a few plates. "Luke, I love you." Lorelai said in her child-like voice.

"Yeah, well I hope you feel the same when your arteries are clogged," He said and sat down the plates.

Rory laughed and looked at Lorelai's face. "You guys are so cute together," She said between fries.

"I know," Lorelai said beaming, "I think the flannel look goes well with my eyes."

Rory nearly choked on a fry. "Are you trying to kill me?" Rory said, laughing. "When you're going to say something funny can you atleast wave your arms around first or something?"

Lorelai gaped at her daughter, "So you don't think that I'm normally funny? I think I'm hilarious, they are calling me Ellen at the inn, and constructing a brick wall that I can stand in front of." She turned to Luke, "But seriously though, doesn't the flannel pattern go well with my eyes?"

Luke pretended to glare at her.

"You're absolutely right. The red of the flannel compromises the blue of your eyes, and makes them just 'pop'," Rory said, throwing her hands in the air at the pop, over-dramatically.

Lorelai turned and looked from Rory to Luke, "Okay fine, Siskel and Ebert, I give up." Lorelai picked up her fork and stabbed two fries with it and began to eat. "At least the food likes me." She said pretending to be sad.

Rory threw a fry at her. "I love you. And we know flannel boy loooooooves you."

Luke stood up quickly as his face reddened. "Can I get you two anything else?"

"No I think we're set for now, Flannel Man." Lorelai said grinning at Luke. "And that color red goes great with the flannel, just so you know."

Luke huffed off back towards the kitchen.

Rory grinned. "So how is it really going? With you two? Everything's good?"

Lorelai leaned in conspiratorially, "Everything's great, and so much better now that you are back. We can set a date for the wedding," she whisper-squealed.

"Oooh, the wedding. Wow," Rory whispered, although she didn't know why. "I'm so excited. Luke and you... I wonder who won the bet...I'll have to ask Sookie."

"A bet. You mean my friends bet on my relationship with Luke? What is this world coming to?" Lorelai asked stunned and then added, "and how come you didn't bet, we could have cashed in on this."

Rory looked confused. "But you didn't know about the bet? Is there a bet on the wedding too? I missed it! No way!"

Lorelai laughed, "you might still have time to get in on the wedding bet, you'll have to ask Sookie about that, but you might want to wait til we know for sure before you put money on this." Lorelai finished up her fries, "so...whenever you're ready kid."

Rory took a final sip of coffee. "I'm ready. Are you ready?" Rory stood up and grabbed her purse.

"Lead the way," Lorelai said as she picked up the ceramic mug and her purse and headed toward the door. "Bye Luke!" she yelled to the kitchen, "I'll bring this back later."

"Have fun," He yelled back, and muttered something about how she always steals the cups.

Rory opened the door. "And... we're off..." She looked around. "So, oooh, the Stars Hollow Annual Track and Field Day was last week, right?"

"Oh, yes," Lorelai said smiling wickedly, "Kirk tripped again, he's so clumsy. You would think that after tripping every year he'd learn to watch where he's going. I think Taylor is considering making a law against Kirk registering just so the others don't trip over him. We had a huge pile-up. I'm sorry you missed it."

"Was it like a dog-pile? Did you go and jump on top?" Rory asked, picturing the whole thing. Then realizing what she asked, she waited for it...

"DIIRRRTY!" Lorelai smirked. "And just so you know, who do you think tripped Kirk?"

"Ohhh, mom!" Rory gasped. "So you admit that you wanted to jump on top of Kirk? I knew it. I always knew it." Rory nodded.

"Hey!" Lorelai was offended, "why would I want to jump ontop of Kirk. GAH! Maybe I wanted to jump on top of that hot sprinter." She raised one eyebrow. The two continued to walk toward the bookstore in a comfortable banter. "Wow it seems like the store got closer to Luke's I wonder if we moved it with out collective psychic power."

"I was just thinking the same exact thing. Lets try to make coffee appear next, okay?" Rory said as they approached the front door, and she scanned the window.

Lorelai handed Rory the half empty coffee cup, "ta-da" she said simply as she opened the door for them. "So what are we looking for today? The thickest book they have?"

Rory took the cup of coffee and mumbled distractedly as she walked inside. It wasn't in the window.

Lorelai looked confused but didn't say anything. She followed Rory around as she walked up and down the isles and finally asked, "what are you looking for?"

"What?" Rory snapped out of it. "Oh, um... just a book." Rory shrugged.

"Because we're in a bookstore," Lorelai said looking at the shelves, "tell me what it's called, I'll help you look."

"Well, I'm just looking for a book. Not a particular book. Non e in particular. No title's to tell." Rory nodded.

"Oh, well," Lorelai looked at all the books and pulled one from the shelf, "this looks like a good book, it has a pages, and a picture on the cover, and," she opened the book, "words on the pages."

Rory glanced at it. She read the cover aloud, "Roses are purple? Yes, mom, that sounds like a fascinating book. Maybe you should go and buy it, and I'll keep looking," Rory suggested.

"But I have no interest in roses, even if they are purple, which they aren't. They are red. Or white, or yellow, or pink..." Lorelai paused, "so what kind of flowers do you think I should have?"

"Daisies?" Rory looked around quickly and grabbed a book. "Look mom! A book on daisies. I think you'd better buy this." She pushed Lorelai towards the front of the store.

"I can't have daisies," Lorelai whined, "that's so been there, done that, broke off the engagement the weekend before. I don't know. Maybe we don't need flowers. Flowers attract bees and they are bad, with their little stinger things," Lorelai gestured, "and then they'll see the cake with the little icing flower things on it and attack the cake and then I'll have bee cake and I can't have bee cake. I want to eat my cake, so the bees can't have it. Unless it's left over, and stale, and moldy, then maybe they can have it, but not until then."

"Oh, mom, daisies...bad... I'm sorry." She grabbed the book and placed it back on the shelf. "What about maybe a non-pollinated flower? Um..." She looked around. "Ooh, look! A wedding magazine, I think you better buy that," Rory said once again, and pushed her towards it.

"But then they wouldn't let you bet in the pool." Lorelai protested, "plus I already have that one at home." Lorelai paused near the magazine stand, "why do you keep trying to push me out of the store?"

Rory glanced at her. "I'm not trying to push you out of the store, mom. I'm just trying to...keep you amused." Rory grinned.

"I'm amused by whatever it is you are trying to hide." Lorelai said as she looked at her daughter skeptically, "however, I'm willing to be lenient if it involves a hot guy. Huh? Huh? Hiding someone in the back of the store that you don't want me to see?"

"Oh, yeah, Mom, you've caught me. Really, you're so perceptive. Does that mean you'll go over there now?" Rory asked.

"Fine." Lorelai said slightly confused, "but if you're looking at a dirty magazine I wanna see."

Rory laughed. "Alright, I promise."

"Okay," Lorelai walked to the front of the store and looked at the candy bars near the register. "Oh, hey Andrew," Lorelai said cheerfully, "I didn't see you there, under the counter, whatcha doin?" she asked.

"I dropped a roll of nickels and I'm trying to find them." he said distractedly and then realizing he had a potential customer asked, "can I help you with something, Lorelai?"

"Oh, no, I'm just here with someone." Lorelai attempted to make a drum roll noise which sounded like a helicopter, "ladies and gentlemen, Rory Gilmore!" she exclaimed. Andrew looked around and then back at Lorelai sadly, "If you say so. Things will get better." he added.

"No, she's right over there." Lorelai said pointing between two tall shelves of books. "Rory, come here. Mommy needs you to explain to the nice man that she isn't hallucinating."

Rory finally spotted it. The thin, white spine was shoved between two huge books. "Um, hang on mom!" She pulled the book out and looked at it. _I can't believe he wrote a book!_ She wanted terribly badly to buy the book, but knew that it'd be better if she left it there, since it was the only one she could find. But on the other hand she wanted to ask Andrew if there were any others. Rory walked to the front of the store, and stood next to her mother. "Hey mom, you wanna go back there and find the hot guy I was talking to?"

"I think that might make Luke jealous." Lorelai said pretending to ponder the thought. "Ooh, I forgot I promised Sookie I'd pick up the new Joy of Cooking cookbook, just so she could point out all the errors to the cook staff, be right back, hun" Lorelai said as she quickly disappeared into the cooking section to find the book.

"Andrew?" Rory whispered. "Do you have multiple copies of the book The Subsect?" She leaned over the counter to him.

"Rory I'm glad you're back, I've missed seeing you perusing the shelves." he paused to look at the inventory sheet, "Yeah I think we have a few in the back, but we're lacking shelf space right now," Andrew said, "did you want a copy?" he asked.

"I found it!" Lorelai proclaimed as she headed toward the front counter. "Can you put this on the inn's tab Andrew?" she asked him.

"Sure Lorelai, anything else?"

"Um, yeah, but could you just put one on hold for me?" Rory answered quickly.

"Ok." Andrew said as he rang up the book for Lorelai, "will do Rory."

Lorelai looked at Rory, "I hope that's my wedding present you're talking about. And it should be a diamond studded book." She grinned. "Bye Andrew."

"Bye Andrew," Rory said. "I'll be back later."

"Now we're going to the Inn?" Rory asked as they walked out the door.


	8. Juice and pizza

Title: Another Round  
Chapter 8, WIP  
Rating: PG/PG-13  
Parings: Rory/Logan, Rory/Jess, Lorelai/Luke  
Spoilers: Nov 22nd's episode  
Disclaimer: No profit is being made from this story. All rights and characters are owned by the genius mind of Amy Sherman-Palladino and her writers and the WB.

"Yes, unless you want to go somewhere else," Lorelai said as she dropped the cookbook into her purse so she wouldn't have to carry it. "Sookie will be so excited, I bet she'll end up dropping whatever she's cooking when she sees you."

"Sookie's it is." Rory said, and they began to walk in that direction. "So are you dying to get the dirt? You can go ahead and ask."

"Dirt?" Lorelai asked innocently, "what dirt? I know of no dirt. Do we need to invest in a vacuum cleaner or one of those swiffer things, they look really neat but have that gross cloth and that annoying woman trying to sell them." She looked over at Rory hoping she'd launch into an explanation.

"Ooh and those annoying kids coming up to the doors with the swiffer cloth all dirty!" Rory said, nodding.

"Yeah," Lorelai made a face, "creepy commercial. I mean seriously what kids want to clean with one of those things? They need to get a new ad-agency, and more believable commercials."

"Well, it's not believable, no, but it almost makes you want to go out and buy one just to see if it works that well." Rory said.

"Gah!" Lorelai said turning to face Rory with a scared look on her face, "what have you done with my daughter you alien body-stealer?"

"I bet if I went home that I would find one hiding somewhere, huh?" Rory laughed.

Lorelai gasped, "Of course you wouldn't. Not unless a house elf left it, and I think that I had the place exterminated for house elves, unless of course they moved in with Luke...or the renovator guys. But I did not put a swiffer in the house."

"You think it was Paul Anka then? Cause I found one under my bed this morning," Rory told her, as they spotted the Inn.

"Poor Paul Anka, he was sick for awhile, I was afraid that he was going the way of the hamster, but Luke said he'd be okay, and he was." Lorelai said changing the subject. "So dirt?" she asked.

Rory shrugged. "You're the one who wants to know it."

"Do you want to tell me?" Lorelai asked, "or do i have to blackmail you?"

"Ooh, blackmail. That's an interesting idea. What exactly would you blackmail me with?" Rory asked curiously.

"Um...that time, when you had the funeral for the caterpillar. Ooh ooh, or the time that you took the coffee mug from Luke's and left it in the bookstore." Lorelai looked at her accusingly, "I'm sure that would get you cut off from the coffee for at least a week."

Rory gasped. "The caterpillar funeral was only common courtesy, you can't hold that against me." She paused. "And you left the coffee cup in the bookstore!"

"I don't think so, missy," Lorelai accused, "I handed you the cup before we went in, and look, now it's gone. I didn't have it, so you must have left it."

"Mom! It was your cup. Oh dear, we have to go back in get it. But we're almost at the Inn. Oy with the poodles already." Rory laughed. "We haven't said that in such a long time."

Lorelai laughed, "Those poor poodles must have missed us. And don't worry about the cup, everyone knows what Luke's coffee cups look like, I'm sure someone will drop it off for us."

"Are you sure? You told him you'd return it. Oh well, you're the fiancee, you get special rules, I guess," Rory said with a nod.

"Yes," nodded Lorelai, "I do. I can even raid his underwear drawer if I want to." she grinned evilly, "did you know that he has a pair of boxers with penguins on them."

"Penguins? Huh. I always thought he'd be more of a hearts guy. Oooh are they flannel?" Rory asked with a grin.

"Amazingly no," Lorelai said, "and he looks very good when he's not in flannel."

Rory shuddered. "Oh my gosh! Mom! The visual! Ewwwww! Ewww! Ahh! That was horrible!"

"Sorry," Lorelai apologized, "it's true though." She smirked. "To Sookie we shall go," she said as she opened the front door to the inn.

They walked to the kitchen and Rory went in quickly. "Sookie! Sookie i'm back!" Rory watched as Sookie dropped the pot in her hand. 

"Ooh, Rory, honey, you're home!" She pulled her into a hug.

"Told ya," Lorelai said quietly to Rory who was being hugged very aggressively by Sookie. "She's back Sookie!" Lorelai exclaimed happily to her friend who was suffocating her daugheter, "But she might be six feet under if you don't loosen up a bit."

"Oh. Whoops." Sookie released her grip. "Ooh, what do you want to eat, babe? I'll make you anything you want. Everyone, drop everything."

Another pan crashed to the floor.

Sookie sighed. "People, people, I didn't mean literally."

"Um... I don't really-"

Sookie cut her off. "How about a homemade pizza? Yes, ooh, everyone, start making a homemade pepperoni pizza!"

Lorelai smiled at Rory. "Sookie, you don't have to go through all that trouble really."

"Oh, of course I do. You two just hang around for an hour or so, and it'll be ready." Sookie said and started busying herself with the cooking.

Rory looked at Lorelai. "Umm... really, Sookie... it's okay."

Lorelai gestured toward the door with her head, as if to say 'follow me' and walked into the dining room and waited for Rory. "Sit down, we're trapped, there is no use arguing with Madame Chef." Lorelai glanced around the dining room to see if they were alone, there was someone with their back to the two reading a newspaper on the other side of the dining room but that was it. "Okay, so spill." Lorelai said, "or I will tell Luke you stole the cup and left it."

"Hmm... spill... on my guy problems right? That's what you want to know?" Rory asked, stalling.

"As long as it's juicy and can be printed on the back of a pair of pants." Lorelai said leaning forward. "It's been so long, I've missed so much."

"Well, I can do juicy." Rory nodded. "I got the sex talk... from grandma, and grandpa, and a priest? I think it was a priest. I was told all about my special gift and my sweater and everything..." Rory laughed.

Lorelai laughed, "Only one? I had three, a priest, a rabbi, and a duck, wait that's a joke. But you get the point. You're lucky you only had one." Lorelai said and shut up so her daughter could continue.

"Yeah. I guess I am lucky. So.. um... Logan and I are on a break. The end." Rory said, and looked down a the table.

"Aww I'm sorry, what did he do? If you want I'm sure Luke would break his legs for you." Lorelai patted Rory's arm.

"Throw him out of the diner maybe?" Rory laughed, remembering Dean. "Well, I don't know. He just... was himself, apparently."

"Yeah, that's never a good thing," Lorelai said distractedly as she stared at the guy reading the newspaper that black hair looked familiar somehow. _I must be imaging things, it's only because Luke mentioned him earlier_ Lorelai thought to herself.

"Well, if that's the case. Then I don't know why it just dawned on me." Rory followed her mother's gaze.

"Because you came back to being you. That's not your world, just like it wasn't mine." Lorelai said trying to get her daughter's attention off the newspaper guy. "Oh, crap. I forgot to give Sookie that book, I'll be right back," she said as she got up and went into the kitchen. "Sookie!" she called.

Rory looked at the guy. _Oh my gosh. That couldn't be him... There's no way!_ She started coughing to see if he would look up.

"Sookie! I need you now!" Lorelai was frantically running around the kitchen when she found Sookie putting toppings on the pizza. "The guy, in the dining room. The guy...who is the guy?" Lorelai asked her.

"The guy, the guy..." Sookie stopped spreading the cheese around and pointed her finger at Lorelai. "Ooh, the guy! The guy who ordered the tuna fish sandwich..." She trailed off. "Oh dear. I forgot about that sandwich! He ordered it 45 minutes ago! I bet his wife is mad." She turned around and started pulling out slices of bread.

"No Sookie, this guy is alone, reading a newspaper. Young guy." Lorelai looked at her. "Any idea who he is?"

"Oh, that guy..." Sookie giggled. "He's certainly cute from the back."

"But you don't know who he is? You didn't get a good look at him?" Lorelai asked frantically, "He doesn't look familiar to you in any way?"

The man with the newspaper turned the page and smirked to himself, "Do you need a glass of water or something for that cough?" he asked without turning around or looking up.

She put mayonnaise on the bread, and pulled the already made tuna out of the fridge, and spread it onto the bread, adding lettuce. "Would you mind taking this to the man with the wife?" She looked around and placed a few cookies on the plate. "Tell him the cookies are on the house. Thanks, hun."

Rory gasped and started coughing for real. _Oh my god. No way. Oh my god. It's not possible._ She figured she must have imagined it, and started taking a drink of water.


	9. He is, isn't he?

Title: Another Round  
Chapter 9, WIP  
Rating: PG/PG-13  
Parings: Rory/Logan, Rory/Jess, Lorelai/Luke  
Spoilers: Nov 22nd's episode  
Disclaimer: No profit is being made from this story. All rights and characters are owned by the genius mind of Amy Sherman-Palladino and her writers and the WB.

Lorelai picked up the plate giving it a strange look, "C'mon little fella, we'll try to find you a nice home." She said as she carried him back out into the dining room. She looked at Rory whose face was a bit red, she gave her an odd look and continued toward the man reading the newspaper, "Excuse me, did you order a tuna fish sandwich, because this one is looking for a home."

The man put down his newspaper and looked up at Lorelai, "y'know the service here really sucks." He smirked and took the plate. 

"Jess..." Lorelai glared at him, "what are you doing here?"

Rory spit the water in her mouth out. How was she going to save him from her mom?

"Mom! Mom!" Rory yelled, a little too loud. "Sookie is calling you from the kitchen! I think she said something about a fire!"

Lorelai turned around, "Not again, we promised no fires at this inn in the contract." Lorelai took off toward the kitchen and Jess smirked at Rory.

"You know, you don't have to save me from your mom, I'm a paying guest here, I think that means she has to be polite to me."

"Is she ever polite to you?" Rory paused. "Anyways, uh, what are you doing here?"

Sookie turned around as Lorelai ran into the kitchen yelling. "Hey hun, the pizza caught on fire in the oven. No damage done, but we're going to have to start the pizza over." Sookie put the fire extinguisher away and pulled the pan out of the oven. "Somebody apparently thought that it was a gasoline powered oven..."

Lorelai sighed, "No more fires for today please," she said as she relaxed a bit. "And Sookie, pizza isn't necessary. We can live with tuna fish sandwiches."

"I just needed a place to stay on my way out of Hartford and since you never know if Luke is going to be sleeping in the apartment or not, and I would rather sleep in my car than at my mom's place with TJ." Jess cringed, "This was the only logical place, so I'm here."

Sookie laughed. "You don't eat tuna... oooh, speaking of tuna did you deliver the sandwich to the man with the wife?"

"You're here." Rory nodded. A few seconds later she realized that she should probably stop nodding. "You're here," She said again. _Why is this weird, now? Because he caught my bullshit? It should have been weird before, but it wasn't then. So why now? It really should have been yesterday. The last time I saw Jess, was when he was begging me to go with him. And the time before that he told me he loved me..._ "You're here."

"There is no man with a wife," Lorelai said, "I think he must have vanished. But Jess is out there." She waited for Sookie's response.

Jess fought back a grin, "I think we've established that." He ran his hand through his hair. "I think the question is why are you here? I thought you were staying in Hartford with Loser."

"Jess..." Sookie looked at her blankly. "Is that short for Jessica? Oh! That's the girl who ordered the mushroom salad last night, right?"

"Oh, about that. I'm really sorry. He's... an asshole...among other things. And I'm sorry about the car incident, too." Rory glanced at him.

"Jess. Luke's nephew Jess, also known as the anti-Christ and the fiend of Stars Hollow." Lorelai waited for Sookie's reaction.

"Whatever, it doesn't matter." Jess said looking back to his newspaper. "Any idea why you're mom brought me a tuna sandwich?"

"Oh, that's right. He's out there reading the paper." Sookie nodded. "He's pretty cute..." She caught Lorelai's look, and added, "for the devil's spawn. He's very devil...ish..."

"Because she's decided to be nice to you from here on out?" Rory shrugged. "I have no idea," She looked down at the table. "And yes. it does matter. He was an #$ and you did nothing to him." She continued. "We're on a break. And I moved out of my grandparents house. And I quit the DAR, and my mom and I are good again... And I'm going back to Yale..."

Lorelai threw her hands in the air. "Sookie! How could you not tell me that he was out there? Rory and I were sitting out there talking about things and he...he was out there...reading the paper...very...smugly."

Jess nodded, "Sounds like a pretty good idea." He lifted his eyebrows at her in one of his patented-Jess looks. _Was I the reason she made all these changes_ he wondered. He picked up the sandwich and examined it, "And I think Lorelai is trying to kill me, it's tuna, maybe Luke has been rubbing off on her."

"Rory's home! I was cooking. I was flustered." Sookie looked at her. "How does a person read the paper smugly?"

Rory laughed. "Maybe, but I doubt it." A few seconds passed, "Jess, I really am sorry about the whole mess. I had no idea that he was going to show up and insist on tagging along, and get drunk, and be an idiot. Well I guess I sort of did... maybe..." She said quietly.

"The way he was reading the paper...he just...it was smugly." Lorelai concluded. "You should have told me Sookie, you said he was attractive you should have said it was Jess."

Jess shrugged, "It's alright Rory," he said simply. "I hope I didn't mess things up with you and whatshisname."

"I just forgot, Lorelai," Sookie shrugged.

"Oh, no. Actually you made everything really clear," Rory told him. "I should be thanking you."

Lorelai sighed, "I should get back out there, I left her alone with him." Lorelai said collecting herself, "wish me luck. And be prepared to run out with a frying pan just in case."

"Huh," Jess said fighting back the urge to grin.

"Aw, maybe you should leave them alone for a few minutes, don't you think?" Sookie suggested.

"Wow. You're exactly the same, yet so much different," Rory said with a laugh.

Lorelai paced the kitchen, muttering to herself "why is he here? with her? she's with Logan, or was, and I didn't like that, but I don't know that I like this either."

"The same could be said of you, Ror." Jess said catching her eye. He paused and then asked, "so...we should do that catching up thing sometime." He suggested hoping she would say yes.

"But you'd rather her be with Jess, then with Logan wouldn't you?" Sookie asked as she started to make a pie crust.

"Yes," Rory said eagerly. "I mean, yeah, that'd be nice. Non interrupted. No jackasses invited."

Lorelai stopped her pacing, "Ohmygosh Sookie, that's such a scary thought. I hadn't even realized that I disliked Logan worse than Jess. I wasn't supportive enough was I? Is that part of the reason why she left?" Lorelai poured a cup of coffee and took a sip.

Jess nodded, "Okay." he said.

"Lord only knows why she left. But what's done is done. It doesn't matter anyhow, she's back!" Sookie spun around. "She's back, she's back," She sung.

"Okay. So, how long are you staying? Are you just going to go back home? What is home? Tell me all about you," Rory insisted.

Lorelai took another sip, "She is." She smiled. "Hey can you make a coffee cake or something, I want to have like a mini-party for her." Lorelai decided spur of the moment.

"See, you have that reporter thing down, really well," Jess smirked, "I'll hang around for a while, I still have some other stores to go to in Connecticut about carrying my book."

"Coffee cake. Yes, I can make coffee cake. Did you hear that people?" Sookie asked around the kitchen. "Coffee cake!"

"Oh, your book. I found that one you shoved in the bookstore between those two big books. I wanted to buy it, but I resisted," Rory told him.

"Well, I'm going to head back out, I think it's been long enough," Lorelai said grabbing another cup and filling it up. "And she should welcome me since I'm bringing her coffee."

Jess laughed, "I didn't shove it there. Andrew put it there, that guy has no idea how to categorize a book store, I swear. Why would you buy it though, to prevent an unsuspecting person from reading it?"

Sookie just nodded and watched Lorelai walk back out of the kitchen.

Rory smiled. "No, I don't know... because I just thought it would be cool, to walk around with a book written by you, saying that I had a book written by you."

"Huh, so the copy I gave you, you flushed down the toilet?" he asked.

"No, I have it right here," Rory pulled the book out of her purse and set it on the table. "I just wanted to actually buy one. Support you... I don't know."

"You don't have to buy one," Jess said simply as he looked down at his book, "I'm not a starving artist or anything." He folded up his newspaper and laid it next to the book, "Have you read any of it yet?" he asked.

Rory smiled slyly. "Open it and see for yourself."

"Intrigue," Jess said slyly as he opened up the book and saw numerous notes in the margins, "oh so you wanted a non-graffittied one." He smirked. He glanced up and saw Lorelai walking toward them. "I should probably get going, I have an appointment in New Haven soon. It was nice to see you Rory." He stood up. As Lorelai made it to the table.

"Jess." she said simply.

"Ma'am." Jess said as he walked out of the dining room and to the front door. 

"Bye," Rory said softly. She felt her mothers presence and looked down. She needed something to do. She picked up the paper he had been reading and glanced at it. It was the Yale Daily Press. An old copy. She looked at the date and was amused to see that her article would have been in it.

Rory grinned as she saw notes in the margins. She quickly panicked that her mom might take the paper and she threw it into her purse. She looked up at her mom and waited.

"I feel like I'm living in the Twilight Zone," Lorelai said as she sat down across from her daughter. "So how was that? Weird? I imagine it must be since you haven't seen him since..." she stopped herself there. "So I got Sookie to agree to make a cake and I'm throwing a welcome home surprise party, except I know you hate surprises so I'm telling you about it."

"Oooh, cake." Rory nodded, then thought about it and decided to go for it. "Well, don't you agree that Jess treats me better than Logan? Because well-" She paused. "Oh, you don't know about that. I might as well tell you..." She took a deep breath. "Jess came to the grandparents house while I was there, two nights ago, and we planned to meet up the following night and go out and talk, but then Logan showed up so the THREE of us went out. Which was _lovely_, by the way, and Logan had a bit too much to drink so he basically was a complete and total jerk to Jess who did nothing at all to him. So Jess got up to leave, and I followed him, and he gave me the reality check that I so badly needed. And Logan and I got into a fight, thus the basis for the 'break'." She purposely left out the part about the book.

"Wow," Lorelai said when Rory was finished, "The Huntzbergers look better and better all the time," she said sarcastically. "So Jess, came to see you. Why did he come to see you? He was just driving around the middle of Hartford and decided that it would be a good idea to stop by The Gilmores to see if you were there by some strange coincidence?" 

"Uh," Rory shrugged. "I'm not 100 sure." Well, it isn't a complete lie, she thought to herself. "Maybe he decided to make up for all the spontaneity he lacked when we were dating?"

Lorelai nodded absently. "Yeah, so Jess is good for something after all," she muttered to herself. And then to Rory, "So, you're okay with him? You don't need me to beat him off the property with a pitchfork?"

Rory thought about it, before answering "Nope, Jess and I are... good. Wow, Jess and I are good. Words I never thought I'd be saying again."

"Aww hun," Lorelai said sadly, "I'm not saying that that's not a good idea, but don't get your hopes up for anything. And you need to keep in mind you're only on a 'break' with Logan, you haven't actually broken up with him."

"So you agree that I should break up with him?" Rory asked quickly.

"Yes. No. Gah!" Lorelai looked flustered. "I can't make those decisions, only you can, kid." She bit the inside of her lip thinking, "I would tell you not to make any quick decisions, but those seem to be working for you right now, so I don't know. It's your call, I'll support you either way. But don't break up with Logan just for a what if with Jess, it has to be about more than that."

"I did psycho things when I was with Logan. Part of the freaky, drop out of Yale, work at DAR, live with grandma and grandpa, avoid my mom, crazy me was with him. I don't think I can be with him. Normal, thinking, me would not be with him." Rory shook her head. "I don't know... I love him, but I'm not in love. And this has nothing to do with Jess..."

"I'm glad that crazy-psycho Rory is gone." Lorelai concluded, "It seems like you've made up your mind. If you're sure can I go run over his parents with a golf cart at the 'club'?" Lorelai grinned.

Rory laughed and then looked at her. "How..do I... break up with him? I've never broken up with anyone before. I don't know what to do. Dean broke up with me. And Jess and I... didn't really every break up, break up," Rory rambled.

"Well," Lorelai wasn't sure what to say, "I think it's like a band-aid, not a cute Barbie or Care Bears band-aid but a band-aid that needs to be pulled off, and you know that you can do it slowly but then you might miss it when it's gone, so you should do it quickly, it might hurt a bit, but it's over with quickly and you can move on without the band-aid anymore so your cut can get some air and heal."

"And I can't pull the band-aid off over the phone, right?" Rory asked. "Maybe I should meet the band-aid for dinner, and let him down gently, and... the end," Rory nodded.

"Okay, see I think you missed the part about the band-aid. The band-aid is your "break" with him but not your break-up with him." Lorelai paused, "but your interpretation works too." She patted Rory's arm. "So dinner with a band-aid, does that mean the restaurant serves neosporin on the menu? Is that what a band-aid eats?"

"With a side of alcohol! Served on a cotton ball." Rory picked up her cell phone. "So I'm going to call him... and make plans for tonight..." She dialed his number and waited. "Hi...Logan, this is Rory...Oh, yeah, I'm sure you did know that..."

Logan was trying to play it cool but was relieved that she called, "I didn't expect to hear from you so soon, Ace, what's up? Everything okay?"

"Oh, yeah, um, everything's just dandy." She frowned and looked at her mom, 'just dandy?' she mouthed. "Well, I was calling to see if you wanted to go to dinner, maybe?"

Lorelai mouthed "dandy" back and made a cut it motion across her neck, trying to save Rory from digging herself into a grave on this one.

"Dandy." Logan didn't like the sound of dandy, "So what time should I pick you up?"

"Oh you don't need to pick me up. I have to do some things, in Hartford, so I can just meet you at a restaurant. Wherever you want to go is fine with me," Rory told him and waited.

Logan resisted the urge to sigh, this was not going well, "This reminds me strangely of my father's life lessons. You take the employee you are going to fire to a restaurant of their choice and do it there in hopes of avoiding a scene." He waited for her to respond.

Lorelai looked at Rory giving her a 'what's he saying' face.

"Oh, so that's what was missing when your father and I had our special chat," Rory said cheerfully. She motioned for her mom to get her cellphone out. 'Call me! Hurry!'


	10. Cellphones, Tramps, and Thieves

Title: Another Round  
Chapter 10  
Authors: This is a combined effort of two Fanfiction writers, myself, DarkAngl2025 and swimchic2.  
A/N: Thank you soo much for reviewing! You guys are great! Please continue to let us know what you think of our story. We love feedback!  
Pairings: Lorelai/Luke, Rory/Jess  
Spoilers: Through the November 22nd episode.

"Rory," he swallowed, "I didn't mean that. I just meant, if you're only saying dinner in order to break up with me just do it now. I don't want to go to a restaurant I like and then never be able to eat there again because that would be the restaurant that you broke up with me in." He paused. _Please say that's not it_ he mentally begged her.

Lorelai was digging in her purse for her cell phone. "Shit." she cursed quietly. She dumped the entire thing on the table and found it, she picked it up and started to dial, but held up the phone so Rory could see it. It read "no service". "I'll call from the inn phone," she whispered and headed toward the front desk.

"I..." Rory paused. "I think I'm getting another call, hang on for a second, okay?" She clicked over to the other line. "Thank god!" She yelled to her mother. "Help me! He thinks I'm going to break up with him. I can't break up with him on the phone. What do I say!"

"Um," Lorelai wasn't sure what to say, "Don't ruin his favorite restaurant." She paused, "Are you sure this is what you want?" She asked.

Logan leaned back in his chair and rubbed his face. "Break, my ass," he muttered. _She's going to leave me and there is nothing I can do, or is there?_ He thought

Rory thought about it. "You just don't want me to be talking to Jess!" She exclaimed. "That's it, huh? You never liked him..." She trailed off, and realized she was acting crazy. "Ugh, i'm sorry. I don't know what to do though. I really don't want to hurt him... I don't want to ruin his favorite restaurant...maybe his least favorite restaurant? Maybe we could meet in a park somewhere?"

"Aww hun," Lorelai felt bad for her daughter, she didn't want her to suffer like this. "Do what you think is right. I'm hanging up now, I'll be in here when you're off the phone, ok?"

"Oh dear, okay, I guess," Rory said and clicked back over to Logan. "I'm back, sorry about that, it was my mom, there was an emergency at the Inn, something about a pizza exploding in the oven, or something..."

"Exploding pizzas can be quite dangerous, because of the cheese factor," Logan deadpanned. "So another life lesson my dad taught me is to cut the losses," he paused, "so I think instead of letting you call the shots and play this out in a polite, passive-aggressive manner I should simply throw in the towel. I was a little insane earlier to put up such a fight. You win, Rory, we're done."

Rory's jaw dropped. "I don't know what to say. I'm quite possibly floored," Rory said quietly.

"Yeah," Logan had expected an argument or tears or something, not complete shock though, "I've gotta go. See ya around." He clicked his phone closed and sat back. "What the hell did you just do Huntzberger?" he cursed himself.

Rory set her phone down and stared blankly at the wall. "Thus continues my streak of never breaking up with a guy," she said, not realizing she was talking out loud.

Lorelai unable to take the suspense any longer had wandered back into the dining room. "Rory?" She asked as she knelt next to her daughter. "Are you okay?"

"He broke up with me," She said emotionlessly.

Lorelai stroked her hair, "okay, help me out here, am I suppose to throw confetti or grab a tub of ice cream and two spoons?"

"Hmm, maybe grab the confetti ice cream?" Rory shrugged. "I don't know..."

"We'll pick some up on the way home," Lorelai said resolutely, "so do you want to take off, get out of here?" she asked knowing Sookie would be popping out soon with something for them to eat or taste or talk about.

"Yeah," Rory stood up slowly. "Let's go," She picked up her purse and looked inside. "Wait! Where is it! He took it!" She accidentally announced these things, and realized it. "He took his coffee cup!"

"Who?" Lorelai asked completely confused.

"Jess," She said, regaining calmness. "He walked out of here with his coffee cup, but I guess that's okay, because he is staying here after all." Rory nodded. _He took my book!_ _Well... I guess we're both getting a chance to read the margins._

"No he didn't," Lorelai said looking confused, he wasn't holding a cup when he left, we're the ones who left a cup in the bookstore, remember? I'm beginning to worry about you babe." Lorelai paused, "Let's go."

"Oh, maybe you're right," Rory fake laughed. "I'm losing my mind." She walked towards the door. "Let's go."

"Sookie, I'll call you later." Lorelai called into the kitchen as they walked out. And then she turned to Rory, "Why are all these guys coming out of the woodwork all of a sudden? I mean Jess disappears for over a year and then BAM. I wonder why he's back."

"Maybe you should have asked him instead of glaring at him?" Rory suggested. "And what do you mean 'all of these guys'?"

"Well, there was...Jess...and Bob...and Mike...and Steve...and Zane...and Dopey...Sleepy and Bashful." Lorelai paused, "and you mustn't forget Dasher and Dancer and Prancer."

"Donner and Dixon, too?" Rory laughed. They walked towards the store. "So you get the ice cream, and I'll get the movies?"

"Dixon? I didn't think that was a reindeer, get Rudolph while you're at the movie store. I'll bet you a coffee that Dixon is not a reindeer." Lorelai said as she opened the door to Doosie's. "Meet you back at the crap shack...or the building formerly known as the crap shack. And if you see Paul Anka remember not to approach him or make direct eye contact or let him sniff the movies if they are rated Pg-13 or R."

"Okay!" Rory walked to the movie store, opened the door, and turned around and walked back to grocery store and opened the door. "It's Vixen!" Rory yelled to her mom. "Right? Vixen?"

Lorelai turned around, "You owe me a coffee missy. And since you're here, do you want anything else besides ice cream?"

"Not really," Rory paused. "Well, maybe chips, and popcorn... and pickles... and mashed potatoes. Is that possible? With gravy? Ooooh, but other than that no." She walked back to the door. "What genre are we in the mood for?"

"Tons of food, got it." Lorelai said as she started grabbing random items off the shelf. "Ooh cookie dough!" She exclaimed as she went to the fridge unit and pulled it out. "And it's up to you, but no Old Yeller, or Homeward Bound, it makes Paul Anka sad."

Rory laughed. "Okay, no dog movies. I'll meet you at home!" Rory walked out the door and over to the movie store. She walked down the isles. "Hmm, action?" She grabbed The Fast and the Furious off the rack, along with Stealth, War of the Worlds, and Dot Kill. She took them to the front of the store and told the cashier just to put it on their monthly bill.

Lorelai finished filling up her shopping basket and paid for the food and decided to stop at the diner to get coffee for them. "Luke." she called as she lugged the three plastic bags into the diner. "I need coffee in a large thermos to go." she called to him as she walked behind the counter, dropping her bags in the floor on the corner and dragging him into the kitchen, "and I want to know why Jess is in Stars Hollow."

Luke looked flabbergasted. "I have no idea why he's here, Lorelai," He found a thermos and started to pour coffee into it.

Rory walked out of the store and decided to take the long way home. She didn't really expect him to be there, but it was just a hunch. She walked towards the bridge, and smiled.

"Well he's here. And she broke up with Logan, and I don't know, I think she did it for him. If he breaks her heart again I'm going to remove his head with a pair of pliers, even if he is your nephew. Oh god, when we get married he's going to be _my_ nephew." Lorelai looked at Luke, "I need that coffee now."

On the bridge...  
"Hunting me down in order to get this back?" Jess asked without looking up from reading the comments she wrote.

"Is that weird? Would that be really weird? What if they got like married? How weird would that be?" Luke asked, freaking out, as he handed her the thermos.

"Maybe," She said and sat down next to him. She pulled out the newspaper and turned to her article. They sat there in silence while they both read.

"Married!" Lorelai screamed. "Don't say that. Ohmygod, married, are you out of your mind? She just broke up with her boyfriend, she's not going to marry some other guy just like that." Lorelai was pacing. "Married...married?...married!"

Jess smirked as he continued flipping through the book, and finally he put it down. "You read all of this in a day?" he asked her.

"I'm just going to have to have a talk with him about this," Luke said firmly. "The next time I see him I'll just tell him to cancel whatever plans he's forming about the matter."

Rory blushed. "Night..." She sat down the newspaper next to the book.

"Oh no, you can't do that." Lorelai said, "we don't want to lose Rory again, which means she needs space, and that means that we have to not interfere, and that includes with Jess." she sighed. "You don't really think they are going to get back together do you? That would be insane."

Jess nodded, "Huh." he waited for her to comment on it.

Luke nodded. "That would be completely insane. Nah, it won't happen."

Rory grinned at him. "I know what you want... well, you're not going to get it yet..." She paused and looked at the water. "Logan and I have broken up."

Lorelai nodded. "Right, so stop trying to give me a heart attack." She took the thermos from him and walked back to the bags and put it in one of them. She gave him a quick kiss. "Dinner tonight?" she asked.

Jess was stunned. "You broke up?" He paused. "I'm...you deserve better." he said.

"Yeah, dinner, um, just us, or Rory too?" Luke questioned as he walked to the front of the Diner with her.

"I know," She nodded. "This is really deja vu-ish. Don't you think? Shouldn't you stand up and ask if we're broken up for good or something? For old times sake?" Rory rambled before even thinking about it. Her hand flew to her mouth, and she couldn't look at him.

"All of us, you, me, Rory, Paul Anka." Lorelai nodded, "and can you make something special?" She gave Luke the sad puppy dog look.

Jess looked at her and could tell she was avoiding eye contact, he wasn't sure how to react, or what to say so he finally decided on the truth, "Was it because of the things I said in here?" he asked tapping the book. "Or was it because I showed up and said a lot of things that I probably shouldn't have said to you?"

"What do you consider 'special', Lorelai?" He asked her.

"Uh, maybe, possibly, a little bit of the second one," She shrugged her shoulders and threw a stick into the water.

"Anything you cook is special, Butch," Lorelai said playfully as she walked out of the diner.

"I'm sorry." Jess said, not sure what else to say. "I didn't mean to mess up whatever the hell it was that you had going, but I couldn't stand by and see you like that."

Rory laughed half-heartedly. "Don't worry, you didn't mess up anything. You gave me the reality check that I needed. You know what? My mom and I weren't even on speaking terms yesterday. We hadn't been for weeks. You...fixed things."

"Huh," Jess said, "well glad to be of service." He noticed the bag of movies she had. "Movie night?" he asked.

"Oh, yeah, it is." She looked up at him. "It's good," she said simply.

He nodded. "Ok." he swallowed unsure of what to say or do at this point, there were so many things he wanted to say to her, to talk to her about, to hear from her. "So..." he paused. "Still want to get together as old friends one night and catch up?" he asked.

"Yes, I do. You name the place and time and I'll be there," She started to stand up. "I better get going before mom goes home and finds me missing..." She looked at the book and newspaper. "Do you want to switch back, or wait til we meet up again?"

"Til next time," Jess said as he watched her gather her things, he pulled a pen from his pocket and wrote his cell number on the paper and handed it to her, "in case you didn't want to call the inn. They gave me a phone, I think they were afraid I'd skip out of them." he said simply.

"Til next time," She said with a nod. "Would you like me to write my cell number in your book?"

"I've already got it," he said looking down, hoping she wouldn't ask how.

"Ooh, I've always wanted a stalker," she said with a grin, and wondered if he'd explain himself.

"Yeah?" he smirked. "Glad I could be of assistance."

She shrugged. "Okay, so who's going to call who? I think you should call me."

Jess looked up at her, "when?" he asked.

"Uh, whenever you want." Rory could not believe that she was on the bridge with Jess. Deja-vu, indeed.

"Ok," Jess said looking at the book, "goodbye Rory."

"That sounds so final," Rory said, as she started to walk off the bridge. "See you later, sounds much more like it will actually happen."

Jess remembered that day on the bus and his stomach did a sickening flip. "See you, soon." he said.

Rory walked home quickly, and sat down on the couch. She thought about everything, and didn't know what to think. Jess was back, so to speak, and things were good, and Logan was gone. Her mom walked in the door within minutes.


	11. Movie Night in a Buffalo Costume

Title: Another Round  
Chapter 11  
Authors: This is a combined effort of two Fanfiction writers, myself, DarkAngl2025 and swimchic2.  
A/N: Thank you soo much for reviewing! You guys are great! Please continue to let us know what you think of our story. We love feedback!  
Pairings: Lorelai/Luke, Rory/Jess  
Spoilers: Through the November 22nd episode.  
A/N: HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Lorelai walked into the living room, "I got coffee too, and Luke is going to make a special dinner for us tonight. See dating diner man does have it's privileges. So what did you get?" Lorelai asked as she started putting the bags out on the coffee table. "Paul Anka, want a snack?" she called to the dog who was sleeping on Rory's bed. And then noticing Rory wasn't responding she asked, "what's wrong?"

Rory looked up at her confused. "What do you mean? Nothing's wrong. I was just thinking."

"About how the little man in the tv changes outfits so quickly?" Lorelai asked as she sat down next to Rory and began sifting through the bag of movies.

"Yeah, pretty much," Rory looked at the movies. "So what do you want to watch first?"

"Um..." Lorelai looked in the bag, "no 'cry me a river' movies? Ooh Fast and the Furious." Lorelai grinned big. "Paul Walker without a shirt, huh, huh, good choice there." Lorelai teased. She put the movie in and pressed play and then picked up the remote and pressed pause. "I know you've been away for awhile, but you do know you can tell me anything. I'm not going to get mad and go off the handle like well...before. No repeats of you leaving, I will do my best to be the cool, understanding mom." She paused, "so if there is something that you want to talk about or tell me or I don't know, whatever, I'm here." Lorelai said hoping Rory would say something.

"Jess and I are good," She said goofily. "Does it seem like deja vu, to you? Cause it certainly does to me. It's really weird. Really, very weird. I'm not really that sad over Logan, more like confused that he broke up with me, and kinda disappointed that I've yet to break up with a guy, but whatever..." She looked up at her mom. "And the rambling begins."

"Aww babe, I missed the rambling. And you have plenty of time to break up with boys." Lorelai said as she squeezed her daughters shoulder. "So, Jess. Really?" she smiled. "Still got a thing for bad boys?" she winked trying to be supportive.

"No. I don't have a thing for him. That would be absurd. We're just friends," Rory stated.

Lorelai nodded, "You know, if you wanted to maybe end up later on in the future...a lot later in the future, as...well more than friends, I suppose I could live with that." Lorelai said trying not to choke on the words, but to prove that she could be supportive.

Rory laughed. "It's okay mom, you don't have to fake it, really... feel free to hate him, just don't be mean to him in person, and i'm happy."

"No, really," Lorelai said, "if you're willing to be-friend him again, he must be different...so I can give him another chance to. Everyone deserves another chance right?" Lorelai asked her thinking back to that conversation they had so many moons ago where Rory had asked Lorelai to give him a chance.

"Yes, everyone does," Rory looked at her suspiciously.

"Okay good," Lorelai said as she went to the kitchen grabbed two spoons and walked back into the living room. "Shall we begin?" she asked handing Rory as spoon and holding the remote.

"We shall," Rory said, and popped the lid of the ice cream container. She lay back onto the couch and smiled over at her mom. It was just like old times.

Lorelai pressed play and leaned back to. She popped off the top of the container and dug her spoon in.

Over an hour passed in silence. They had devoured the ice cream within 15 minutes... and had moved on to chips. Rory now sat with a bowl of popcorn in one hand, and pickle in the other. She knew she was breaking a rule, but she reached over and paused the tv. "Don't pregnant women do these sorts of things?" She asked Lorelai.

Lorelai almost choked, "Please, tell me that this isn't your way of tying to tell me something!" She turned to Rory. "Okay, what's up?"

Rory leapt of the couch, spilling popcorn, as she yelled, "Ohmygosh! Mom, NO! I am soooo not pregnant! I was just wondering why I was eating so freakishly," She looked at her, "But now I remember, we ARE freaks."

"Well!" Lorelai yelled back, "I didn't know where you were going with that one." She clutched her chest, "Are you trying to do give me a heart attack?" Lorelai took a deep breath. "And we are not freaks, the rest of the world just does not appreciate proper eating."

"Sorry." Rory sat back down. She pushed the 'play' button, and continued eating her pickle. Seconds later she pressed the 'pause' button again. "What are we having for dinner?"

"I don't know." She said turning to her daughter, "have a craving for something?"

Rory shook her head. "No, not really." She started the movie again, waited a few seconds and stopped it. "Would buffalo wings be too difficult?"

Lorelai gave her a look, "Are you sure you're not pregnant. I cannot even remember a time that you ate buffalo wings."

"But I have had buffalo wings," Rory pouted. "I've had them." She pressed 'play' again.

"Ok." Lorelai said incredibly confused by Rory, "hand me the phone and I'll call Luke and tell him buffalo wings."

Rory paused the TV and pointed an accusing finger at Lorelai. "You just broke your own rule!" She exclaimed, and handed her the phone.

"You did it first with all the stopping and starting." Lorelai insisted as she dialed. "Plus this is an emergency, it involves food and that's in clause 2b."

Rory just looked at her.

"Hello?" Luke answered gruffly.

"Buffalo wings. We need buffalo wings," she looked over at Rory. "Lot's of buffalo wings."

Luke frowned. "Since when do you eat buffalo wings?"

"Ha!" Lorelai said to Rory while she continued to talk into the mouth piece, "I told you we don't eat buffalo wings." Lorelai paused, "Just get them and make them, apparently we eat them alot or a lot of them. Maybe you should bring home the whole buffalo just to make sure." Lorelai said.

"Whatever you say," Luke said with a nod. "I'll see you guys later, bye."

"Luke," Lorelai whined before he hung up, "Rory wants buffalo wings. Really." she paused, "can you make them for dinner? Thanks, I love you. Bye." Lorelai hung up before he could say anything. "Buffalo wings are taken care of," Lorelai told Rory.

"Thank you, and we so eat buffalo wings," Rory stated.

"Ok," Lorelai said thinking about it, "that time...in the place...with the thing...they had the...wait...no...those weren't buffalo wings, they were spare ribs."

"Oh, that time, yeah, those were ribs," Rory wrinkled her forehead. "What about that one time..." Rory trailed off. "We have so had buffalo wings! You'll see tonight!"

Lorelai looked skeptical, "Ok. If not after tonight we will have had buffalo wings. It'll be an adventure, because obviously if you had been here when you weren't we would have eaten buffalo wings at some point. So we are making up for lost time."

"Yeah, obviously we would have had them. So we'll have them now...and maybe then we'll remember the other time we had them," Rory agreed.

Lorelai laughed. "Yup. So, roll 'em?"

"The movie?" Rory asked. "Roll the movie, or the buffalo wings?"

"Martin would be so disappointed, has he taught you nothing?" Lorelai quipped, "Can you roll buffalo wings? Are they round?"

"Uh... I don't know..." Rory shrugged. "Next you're going to ask if they come from a real buffalo, right?"

Lorelai gasped. "They aren't? Next you're going to tell me the Easter Bunny isn't really a bunny."

"Uh, of course he's a bunny! If he was a horse they would call him the 'Easter Horse'," Rory said, logically.

Lorelai wiped her brow, "phew, I was so afraid you were going to tell me it's a horse in the bunny costume."

"That would be as ridiculous as the Tooth Fairy really being a cavity in her costume," She stated.

Lorelai looked confused, "What does a cavity have to do with the tooth fairy? She isn't a tooth, she's a fairy...who collects teeth. Hadn't she ever heard of stamps or coins or those stupid thimble things?"

"Or dolls, or feathers, or rubberbands, or candybars," Rory continued.

"Who collects candy bars?" Lorelai asked, "I mean, if I were to collect candy bars, I would eat them, and all would be left would be the wrappers, and the trash men already collect those."

Rory laughed. "Maybe people collect it like wine, by expiration date."

Lorelai laughed and made a mock wealthy stuck-up voice, "Well, Mrs. Miffy, we have this lovely candy bar for you, aged forty-two years. The price? Well darling, it's only $700. Shall I charge it to your account?"

"It's only 42 years old? Are you kidding me? Find me one that's at least 65 years, golly gee. And it must be more than a thousand dollars to really be a catch," Rory mocked.

"Well we have one flying in from Switzerland, and you know the Swiss are famous for their old chocolate...but we don't know what kind of shape it's going to be in. It was burned in Paris...during the Great fire, because of that Napoleon fellow." Lorelai continued to play along.

"Oh dear, that fellow was certainly never up to any good, I hope he got sunburnt on that island they sent him off too, and I really hope the chocolate is jolly good, cheerio," Rory said with a grin.

Lorelai laughed, "I missed you!"

"And I missed you too, now where is my chocolate?" Rory joked.

"Um...under the couch." Lorelai suggested.

"Eww, Paul Anka must have slobbered on it," Rory frowned.

"He doesn't slobber." Lorelai insisted. "He sniffs, and licks, and chews. But no slobbering."

"You trained him not to? Does he talk too?" Rory asked skeptically.

"Of course he talks, who do you think I've talked to for the past few months?" Lorelai asked, "he just doesn't talk around other people, he's really shy."

"Ohh, I got it," Rory nodded. "Maybe he doesn't like me...it's cause I stole his bed back, huh?"

"Well yes, but don't tell him you heard that from me." Lorelai said in her best spy voice.

"I'm here with your buffalo wings," Luke announced, as he walked in the door, Rory jumping at the sound of his voice.


End file.
